Spy Squared
by amazingakita
Summary: Alex Rider goes to CHERUB - though chapters 4 and 5 are a mini Alex Rider at Brecon Beacons.
1. Chapter 1

Alex's POV

'Come on, open!' I whispered, trying to pick the lock of the door I was currently kneeling in front of. I managed to open the door as he heard shouts from the guards behind him. I swore softly and ran through the door, round a corner and straight into a guard, who fell onto his companion. This would have been fortunate, and almost funny, had two sets of guards not been coming round both corners at that point. I was surrounded. I looked left and right as I searched a way out of the corridor. Nothing. I crouched lower and waited for one of the men to attack. What I didn't expect was for them to get out what appeared to be tranquilliser guns. Why tranquillisers? Was my first thought. The answer came almost immediately. Capture. I heard one say into an earpiece "We got another one boss. Now going to take him out" That surprised me. Another one? What were they talking about? Another what? Agent? In my confusion I didn't notice the guard behind me shoot his tranquilliser gun at me until it was too late. Then all I knew was black.

* * *

James' POV

The radio, attached to one of the guards walking past their cell, crackle and say "We got another one boss. Now going to take him out". Another one? James was confused. He looked round his cell... Kerry, Lauren and Rat. They were the only ones sent on this mission weren't they? Unless they'd sent some others in to try to get them out... Nah, that wouldn't work. They knew about CHERUB. That's how they got caught. How they knew, he had no idea. They mentioned something about working for … a scorpion? He looked at the others. They were just as confused as him. Kerry crawled over to him. "Would they send more CHERUBs in? I mean, they caught us...". Rat decided to interject. "No. They'd send in SAS or someone from MI6, wouldn't they? That'd be so cool! We'd get to meet a spy!".We all looked at him. "Really, Rat? I knew you were stupid, but..." Lauren said while rolling here eyes. Rat looked like he was going to pretend to be over -offended by all of this, but we were interrupted by a guard opening a cell, and throwing something – no some_one_ in.

* * *

Alex's POV

I was awake when they threw me on the floor. I didn't want to 'wake up' too soon, it might make these people suspicious. I decided to wait about 10 minutes before moving. I listened in on their conversation.

'… he? He's not a CHERUB. Does MI5 have any other child agents?' one said. They sounded female. Alex hadn't got a good look at any of them. One bit stuck with him. _Other_ child agents. Which meant... He realised the conversation had moved on while he was musing on how to kill Blunt.

"Who captured us anyway?" This person sounded slightly Australian.

"I think they said something about a scorpion?" Shit. This can't be good. I hoped he wasn't talking about SCORPIA.

"Hey, I think he's waking up now." I must have tensed when they mentioned scorpions. I never did like them after... well, everything. I rolled over.

"Where am I?" I asked the 4 children – two boys, two girls – sitting around the cell. The Australian sounding boy replied

"In a cell." I rolled my eyes.

"I got that much. Where is the cell? And don't say in a police station." I remembered the cover story MI6 had given me – a classic case of breaking and entering, with intent to steal. Well, it was true. Just I would steal all their computer information, instead of, say, the TV. Oh, and find out where they were keeping the MI5 agents they'd captured, then freeing them if possible. I was sitting against a wall by this point. Wait... Before I could finish that thought, the guy-who-wasn't-Australian , who looked related to one of the girls and was sitting next to the other, replied with

"Actually, I think it's in the basement of a house." He was the one that had mentioned scorpions earlier. I pretended to look confused.

"Why would you have a cell underneath your house? And why are we being held here? Isn't it illegal or something? Why are you lot here anyway?" I was about to continue questioning them, but someone walked into the cell. He was obviously the leader of whatever was going on here. I decided not to annoy him by sarcastic comments, because that'd probably give too much away about me, and I didn't want these kids to know anything about me. So I asked him question after question.

"Who are you? Why am I here? Why are these lot here? Where's here? Who do you work for? Who are these lot anyway?" I could see the head evil guy get more and more annoyed with each passing question, and the other kids just looked shocked. Eventually the evil guy snapped.

"SHUT! UP!" he yelled, and glared at me. Everyone else looked worried. I guess they hadn't met Dr Three. Or Wolf. His glare was much better than this guys.

"Right," the head evil guy said. "I am Nyoka." He motioned at me. "You. You will come with me. Let us find out what you know of CHERUB..." Two guards came in and grabbed me by the arms. "Hey! I can walk, you know." I said. The guards ignored me, and pulled him out of the cell. Nyoka gave the others a smug look. "Now you know why you shouldn't mess with SCORPIA." And with that, turned on his heel and walked out.

* * *

"Did I hear that right? You work for SCORPIA?" I asked as soon as Nyoka came out of the cell. He sneered.

"Of course." I was dragged behind him. This wasn't going to be fun. The only thing I had to rely on was the fact that I didn't really know what this CHERUB thing was. SCORPIA should know that. Or relish telling me all about it... But then again this was SCORPIA. They'd probably just torture me 'cause I'm Alex Rider. So you can imagine my surprise when they _didn't _tie me to the ceiling and get the knives, whips and hot irons out. They did handcuff me to a chair, in a room that looked suspiciously like the interrogation room from the TV show Castle. Nyoka strode round to the other side of the table.

"Right. Tell me all you know about CHERUB." he growled at me.

"Nothing. Are you sure you work for SCORPIA? I really wasn't expecting this... More something along the lines of whips, or knives." Nyoka visibly paled.

"Why would I do something like that?"

"Because you're supposed to be SCORPIA. Sabotage. Corruption. Intelligence. Assassination. That's what you do." I was having fun here. These men were so obviously _not _SCORPIA, I don't know why I even considered it. I mean, they hadn't gloated about catching me once. And there was only two guards outside the room. None inside! Still, it'll be a relief that I won't have to worry about ruining their plans again. For a third time. Hey, I wouldn't even have to worry about this group at all. SCORPIA would kill them all for even thinking of using their name. That, or recruit whoever's idea it was. I suppose I had to get out of here before that all happened though. They really don't like it when you ruin their plans and destroy most of the board. Repeatedly. I supposed I could find out about this CHERUB thing everyone seemed to be going on about. I realised that Nyoka - who even names their child that? - had been trying to (unsuccessfully) intimidate me for the past minute or so. I looked at him.

"How about this." I interrupted him mid-sentence "You tell me everything you know about CHERUB, and I'll fill in the gaps." He looked happy at this. Moron. I noticed a paper-clip on the table. Nyoka started telling me everything he knew, which admittedly wasn't a lot, but was more than me.

"During WWII, French civilians set up a resistance movement to fight against the German forces occupying their country. Many of their most useful operatives were children and teenagers. Some worked as scouts and messengers. Others befriended homesick German soldiers, gathering information that enabled the resistance to sabotage German military operations. A British spy named Charles Henderson...(Basically the What is CHERUB? from any of the books.)...adults never suspect that children are spying on them." I could agree with that bit. That's why MI6 used me. Nyoka was looking at me expectantly.

"Yeah, about that... I don't know what the hell CHERUB is. But thanks for the information anyway!" I said, plastering a massive grin on my face. He looked ready to punch me. In fact, that's what he tried to do. But, he'd left a paper-clip on the table. And chosen bog-standard handcuffs. Really easy to get out of, especially with only one hand restricted. I blocked, and kicked out at his head. I wasn't aiming for his temple, but that's where my foot connected. I quickly handcuffed him to the chair. I found a bunch of keys on him. I don't know how he captured some MI5 agents. Talking of MI5 agents... I worked my way back to the cell. I opened the door, and stood there smiling. "Come on then. Do you want to get out or not?" With that, I turned round and walked towards the exit.

* * *

On the way out they bombarded me with questions.

"How did you get out?"

"What did they want?"

"Where's the exit?"

"That's a bruise!" I turned to the Australian guy who said that.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"How did you get it? Did they punch you? Was it while you were fighting your way out?"

"Where is it?" I asked, because I hadn't noticed them hitting me in the middle of the fight.

"On your right cheek. Did you not notice it?" the last girl, who looked Chinese and hadn't spoken when I was there yet. I poked it. Ouch. I wondered when that had happened. Probably when I tripped into the table. Yeah.

"Hey. What's your name?" the Australian guy asked. "I'm Rat, that's James, his sister Lauren, and Kerry." He gestured at each in turn.

"I'm... Jack Starbright." I didn't want to give them my real name, as I had already decided to hide from MI6 at this CHERUB place. I just had to get in... though I think this whole escaping bit would sort it out. "But call me Alex. I prefer it." James gave me a funny look.

"Why? What do you have against Jack?"

"Nothing. Though legally I am Jacques Alexander Starbright."

"Ah." There was silence for a few moments.

"Do you actually know where you're going?" Rat finally asked.

* * *

I managed to get us all out of the house without any further incident. Surprisingly, no one had come out to help us after I sent out my distress call. Fortunately, we were in a normal-looking house, in the middle of London, which had a Ford Fiesta parked in front of it. There was only 5 of us, and someone had left it unlocked. I opened the door and told the others to get in.

"Is this legal?" Kerry asked.

"Is holding kids in a cell in your basement legal?" I retorted.  
"Where do you want to go?" I asked them after we'd all managed to squeeze in.  
"Can you drop us off outside Madame Tussauds?" Kerry asked.  
"Sure."

The car journey was uneventful. I left the car outside the waxworks, and wandered over to the Royal and General Bank. I walked up to the main desk.  
"I'm here to see Mr Blunt. Tell him it's Alex Rider."

"Go right up." the receptionist said, waving towards the lift.

"Ah, Alex. Was it successful?" Blunt asked monotonously as soon as I had entered Blunt's office. He was sitting at his desk as normal, with Mrs Jones standing to his left.  
"Yes." I replied coldly. "I found out lots there. For example, did you know that MI5 have aN _ENTIRE _FLIPPING CHILDS DEPARTMENT. _WILLING CHILD SPIES _AND... You didn't know." I finished calmly. I could still see the shock on Blunts face.  
"Can I guess my next mission then? You'll need to make a file up for a one Jacques Alexander Starbright, 14 and quite bright before dropping out of school. Homeless. Spent a few nights in cells for breaking and entering, suspected member of a gang known only as 6" Blunt actually almost smirked here. Shocking, I know. "And is an enemy of the Silver Scorpion gang. Got shot in the chest in the middle of a shoot out between the two gangs." Jones had walk out for the end of the gang part, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh. They must be ill. It wasn't that funny!  
"Smithers has some gadgets for you, though none specialised for this mission." she said as she walked out. I recognised that as a dismissal. I walked out the door to the elevator and pressed the button for the basement."

* * *

"Smithers!" I called out. He was one of the few people I actually liked at MI6. And he liked me back.  
"Alex! Heard about the new mission! Infiltrating MI5, eh? Now here we have your spot cream, re-filled of course. Here's a watch. Be careful now, as if you set it to 8.45, and hold down this button here, a laser will come out. Yes, like that. If you set it to 12 then it will send an emergency signal to us at MI6. This is your exploding bubble gum. And finally, these shoes have secret compartments with knives, lock picks and the heel on the left one holds a gun. The watch and both the shoes have tracking devices in them. You'll be living on the streets for a while, so here's a sleeping bag, water, stab and bullet proof. According to your file, you'll be sleeping in the alley down the side of the bank. You'll be glad to know, that for some reason people don't like sleeping down there. Good luck Alex!" I smiled at the pudgy man.  
"Jones said there was nothing specialised." looking at the bag.  
"It was going to be used on another mission, but I can't remember why it wasn't... Oh well, I'm sure it was nothing." I was now very suspicious of the sleeping bag.

"Oh! I almost forgot! You want this?" I said, getting a USB stick out of my pocket!

"Thanks! But.. this isn't the one I gave you..."

I just smiled and walked out.

* * *

I managed to get a lift back to Ian's house. I guess I really should call it mine, but it never felt like it, and it won't be till I'm 18. If I get to 18.

"Ja..." I called out before remembering what happened. God, I can't believe I forgot. I wanted to cry, but I had to pack for this mission. I shook my head violently, trying to dislodge the images. It didn't help. I found an old backpack, large enough to fit everything in. Most the room was taken up by the sleeping bag. I threw some clothes, Smithers gadgets and a photo of Jack, Ian Tom and I, and a photo of my parents. I tucked theses carefully into an inside pocket of the bag. With a sad look around the place I locked the front door, and went to be homeless. Fun!

* * *

James' POV

After Jack/Alex/whatever left us at Madame Tussauds, all hell broke lose. Zara was there. So were a load of CHERUBS. We had decided this would be the meet up point if anything went wrong.  
"Hey, Zara! Over here!" Rat yelled. She looked over at us. The way she reacted was not one any of us were expecting. She ran over and hugged us.  
"Are you all ok?" Once we had all nodded, she hit each of us round the back of the head.  
"Ow! What was that for?" Rat exclaimed.  
"Being caught." said a voice behind us. Ewart stood behind us. "Now, Kerry, you're the most sensible," Ewart ignored the protests from all of us, "What happened and did you get what you were looking for?"  
"We were sneaking around when two guards came into the room. Lauren managed to hide the USB with everything on it before they shot us with tranquillizers. We woke up in a cell. The next day they threw this blonde guy in. They took him out and asked him some questions about CHERUB. He came back after locking the guards a room. We escaped. He hot wired a and drove us here. Lauren do you still have the information?"  
"Yep!" Lauren replied brightly. "It's all here on this..." by this point she was frantically patting her pockets and looking on the floor. "I had it when we went in the car!"  
"Didn't Jack help you out of the car?" Kerry asked. Lauren paled.  
"Jack Starbright. The blonde guy. Wanted us to call him Alex, said it was his middle name or something." I supplied for Zara and Ewart, who were looking quite confused. "Said he worked for a repossession company or something... Said it wasn't entirely legal... That pikey! I bet he's got the USB with everything on."  
"Well as long as you're all ok. Was there anything or anyone else you forgot to mention?"  
"Yeah. The bad guys knew about us. They knew about CHERUB and thought Jack was one too. They asked him questions about CHERUB. Though I don't think it worked. He knocked out the guards and escaped."

Zara and Ewart shared a glance. "Did he mention family? Or where he lived?" Ewart asked.

"He said something about a bank...the General and Royal? Royal and General, that was it. He must live near there. Are you thinking about recruiting him?" replied Rat, in one breath.

"Yes."

* * *

Alex's POV

It took them three days to find me. THREE DAYS. They're supposed to be MI5! And I was trying to be as obvious as possible. I told the four kids where I lived... though they probably thought I meant a house or something nearby, not the alleyway next to it. Anyway, on the evening of the third day, I noticed two people near where I had been sleeping. I decided to surprise them. I hid in the shadows and quietly slipped into my sleeping bag. Neither of them noticed. Aren't they supposed to be MI5? At about midnight, one woke me up by saying "...must have scared him off. I told you we shouldn't have stood in the open like that."

"Lets come back tomorrow after dark, and see if he's here then." The first one looked down at me.

"Hey! The kid's in his bag!" he yelled.

"What?!" They both walked over to me. I was well and truly awake by this point. They came and grabbed me. Well, tried to anyway. I jumped out of the sleeping bag, and kicked one in the stomach. He doubled over and muttered a long string of swearwords. I turned around in time to see a fist flying straight for my face. I ducked, and pulled the arm forwards, forgetting we were in a narrow alleyway. He went head first into a wall, and collapsed straight in the path of the other agent, who had a syringe out, and was running at me. The agent with a syringe tripped over his partners unconscious form, and landed on me. The syringe went straight in my shoulder, and the agent depressed the plunger. I felt my awareness slipping away. The last thing I heard was "We got him... but he put up a helluva fight"

I woke up in the back of a car. From what I could tell, it was black. Why does the government insist on using black cars? Out of the windows, I could see the sun was rising, which meant I had been out for about 6 or 7 hours if I had my timings right. I felt the car slowing down. Before I could do anything, the two agents got out of the car. The one who I had knocked unconscious picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. I was right. It was black. I rolled my eyes at that. I looked around. I could see a fountain and a few buildings dotted around. I was carried past the fountain and into a large reception area. The receptionist took one glance at us, and said "Floor 6, Room 13". The two agents, with me still over their shoulder, walked into an empty lift. Nothing interesting happened until they finally put me down on the bed, and started to undress me.

"If you wanted to see me naked, you could have asked." I said loudly. They both jumped.

"Holy... you're awake?"

"No. I sleep talk. It confuses the hell out of people." They did look very confused.

"Look, kid." I glared at him for that. "Just wear these, ok? Then go downstairs." He handed me an orange shirt, green military-style trousers and a pair of black boots.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why can't I wear my own clothes?" I asked.

"Because."

"Because what?" The agent that was still there (the other had walked out before he tried to undress me) sighed deeply. I was annoying him, I could tell.

"I had orders to bring you here, undress you and leave you with these clothes. Will you let me do my job?"

"No." He actually growled at that. I tried not to laugh. Nowhere near as good as the sergeant at Brecon Beacons. "But I will get changed myself. If you would kindly leave...?" He looked indecisive at that. I opened the door and hoped he'd take the hint. He did.

* * *

I got changed quickly, and walked out the door. I walked over to the lift, deciding to go to the receptionist and ask her what to do. She looked up at the sound of the doors opening.

"You're up early" she stated with a frown on her face.

"What can I say? I've never liked being drugged into unconsciousness." All I got for that witticism was a very odd look.

"Follow me. Doctor McAfferty is waiting." I followed her down a short corridor, and waited impatiently as she knocked on a nondescript door. A Scottish voice called out enter, so I walked in. The office had full length windows, and a fireplace with two stuffed chair facing each other in front of it. There was a desk full of paperwork, with a person sitting in a tall backed chair.

"Hello Jacques" I visibly winced at that, remembering that "Jacques Alexander Starbright" really didn't like his name. "You're up early."

"Why does everyone say that?"

"No reason. I'm Doctor McAfferty, but everyone calls me Mac. Take a seat by the fire please." I walked to the chair facing the window.

"Now, do you know why you're here?" Mac asked.

"I was rudely awoken in the middle of the night, drugged and brought me to wherever here is. My guess is as good as anybodies."

"Yes, I heard about how your night went. You knocked out one MI5 agent, and bruised-"

"MI5? What does the government want with me?" I interjected. Mac raised an eyebrow, almost looking surprised that I picked up on the fact he said MI5.

"We want you to spy for us."

"Because adults would never guess children were spying on them?" I managed not to put any venom into my words, and keep a straight face when I said it. I wonder if I could get a career as an actor...

"Exactly." Mac stated, interrupting my musings. "We are called CHERUB."

"So it does exist! I just thought that guy was mad." Mac looked confused at this.

"I was caught breaking into a house, thrown into a cell, then asked questions about CHERUB. He sounded mad." I explained

"Anyway, we want you to become a CHERUB agent. You will have to pass some tests first, then survive basic training, but looking at your file, I think you'll do well."

"I have a file?"

"Yes. Everyone does."

"Cool. Can I do those tests now?"

* * *

The first test was martial arts. I was nervous, because it had been ages since I had been in a normal fight i.e. I wasn't going to die or be tortured if I lost. The adult who was showing me round, Zara, obviously thought I was nervous because I wasn't very good.

"Relax, you'll be fine." she told me. I took my place on one side of the mat, facing a wiry kid that had been introduced as Bruce. Bruce was quite a bit shorter than me, but had a black belt tied around his gi.

"Rules are as follows: first to submit five times loses. You can submit by tapping on the mat, or by saying 'I submit'. You can withdraw from the match, but that means losing. No eye gouging, or groin shots" Zara told them both. Damn. There went plan A.

"Start on my whistle." WHEEEEEP. Bruce immediately shot forwards trying to hit me in the face. I moved to the side and stuck my foot out. He tripped and fell face first. I grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind him. Bruce tapped out. I let him go, and he got up shakily. He looked almost... worried. I hoped I hadn't done anything that'd make them suspicious. The whistle blew This time, Bruce stayed very defensive. I watched him carefully, looking him in the eyes to see what he does next. His eyes flicked left, I leant right. I could see Zara over his shoulder. She looked surprised and amused at the same time. Bruce span, left leg aiming straight for my side. I caught it and lifted. He ended up on the floor again, but on his front this time. I held his leg and said "I'll break your knee if you don't withdraw" He paled at this, and called out in a shaky voice "I withdraw." Zara walked over.

"You beat Bruce." She sounded slightly stunned. I shrugged with one shoulder. I was just glad I didn't severely hurt him. Or use any of my SCORPIA training...

"What's the next test?"

I sat behind a desk, with an exam paper in front of me, and 45 minutes to complete it in. This had me nervous. I missed a bit... some... most of the last school year because of MI6. Fortunately, the questions weren't too hard. A mix of English, maths and languages. The instruction at the start of the language section said 'Answer in as many languages as possible'. I ran out of room after answering in English (well it is a language) French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian for each question and a couple in Hindi as well. The 45 minutes seemed to fly by, especially when you can't remember how to conjugate कपटवध करना properly.

There was a break for some food. There were loads of people in the cafeteria. What bugged me was how similar it looked to the lunch hut at Brecon Beacons. Apart from the teenage spies. And the food, it was even better than Jack could make... _Goddamnit_, I thought to myself, _is everything going to remind me of her?_

After a lunch of Spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread, I was lead back to Mac's office. There was a chicken in a cage.

"Now, Jacques, I want you to kill this chicken" Mac said. Oh god.

"No."

"Why? You eat meat don't you?"

"Yes. But I'm still not killing the chicken."

"Why not?" I can't exactly tell him about the blood on my hands already...

"I don't want to."

"What happened if I was to pay you to kill it?" Now I was definitely not killing the chicken.

"What, and make me a chicken assassin?" Mac looked shocked at the comparison.

"I hadn't thought about it like that before..."

"I've told you, and I'm not changing my mind. I don't want to be a chicken assassin. I. Will. Not. Kill. The. Chicken."

"Fine." Mac wrote on a clipboard. "Time for the last test."

It was an assault course. Much easier than the one at the SAS camp, from what I could see. I greeted my two guides, Connor and Callum. They were identical twins. We climbed up the ladder together, then slid over a pole. There was a jump of about a metre. I jumped across without thinking about it. Up another ladder, along some more planks and to a jump of nearly a metre and a half. Even though it was 20 metres off the ground, it wasn't the worst I'd had to do. I jumped across to a balcony with a rail round the edge. I walked over to the gap, and saw a blue crash mat on the ground. I faced the twins.

"Is this the only way down?" They nodded. I looked back to check the mat was still there, and did a back-flip off the edge. What? I might as well impress them while I can. They certainly acted it.

"Bloody hell... How did you do that?"

"Can you teach me?"

"Did you spike our food?"

"How could he spike our food? What would he put in it anyway?"

"Hallucinogenics, duh. That'd explain what we just saw." Their conversation carried on like that for a few more minutes, until Zara came up to them.

"So, did he pass?"

"Pass? He did a flipping back-flip off the end platform!" Zara looked stunned, then turned to me wit an amused look on her face.

"I think it's time we offered you a place here at CHERUB."

* * *

Back in Mac's office, sitting in front of the desk this time, I found out how I did on each test.

"You did exceptionally well on each of the tests. First off, you beat Bruce in a fight. That hasn't happened for a while, even when he's fighting other CHERUBS. You did average on the English and maths part of the test, but aced the languages. Your comparison between killing the chicken and becoming an assassin put some doubts in my head, but you chose a decision, and stuck to it. And your performance on on the obstacle course... Did you really do a back-flip?" I nodded. Mac carried on "Well, I think it's safe to say, you are a perfect candidate for CHERUB. Would you like to join us?"

"Yes." Finally!

"Great! Now it's time for you to meet your handler. They will answer any questions you have."

I was lead to an office. I knocked on the door. "Come in." Someone called. I walked in. Sitting behind a desk, much smaller than Mac's, was Zara. "I see you've decided to join CHERUB. I think it was a good choice. Anyway, you can't stay as Jacques Starbright. You need to think of a new name." A perfect one came to me almost immediately.

"Can I be Alex Cub? They're a couple of old nicknames of mine." Zara smiled.

"That's perfect! Now do you have any questions?"

"What does a handler actually do?" To me the use of the word "handler" made us sound like animals...

"We look after you, make sure every is ok, give you missions, and if you misbehave, give you punishments."

"What's going to happen to my things?"

"They're in your room."

"Where's my room?"

"I'll get someone to show you after we're finished."

"What sort of missions do I get to go on?"

"After passing basic training, you'll go on simple missions, like befriend someone to get in their house and plant bugs or hope they slip up and give information away. We won't put you in potentially dangerous situations till you have at least a navy shirt. All missions are put through n ethics committee, and you get the chance to back out if you so wish." So no blackmail? Well, that'll be new. And an ethics committee! They'd have a field day if they got any of my missions. The missions sounded easy anyway. Befriend someone? Easier than infiltrating Herod Sayle's mansion!  
"Basic training?"  
"You spend 100 days working on survival, combat and language skills, though you may not need as much of the last two as the rest of the trainees. The next starts in a few days. You'll be taking it then. Be warned, this will be the worst 100 days of your life at CHERUB."  
"What do the shirts mean?"  
"The different colour shirts are like ranks. Orange is visitor, you need permission to talk to one. Red shirts are for those who are unable to take basic training, usually because of age. Light blue is for trainees, like you, who are taking basic training. Grey is for those who have passed. Navy is for those who have done well in a mission and black for those who have done outstandingly well in one mission, or well over a number. Anything else?"  
"One last thing. Why CHERUB?"  
"Ah. No one actually knows. Charles Henderson, the man who set this up, got shot by his wife before he could tell anyone, but after he printed all these letter heads. As it was the war, no one let the paper go to waste, and the name stuck. If you have any ideas, please tell." I thought they were supposed to be spies! It was obvious! I couldn't get the R, and the end only worked if it was the second group, but apart from that it worked. My thoughts were interrupted with a question from Zara.  
"Do you want to see your room now?" I nodded.  
"James can show you there. He should be outside." Recognising a dismissal, I walked out the door.

* * *

James was leaning against the wall. He smiled at me when I walked out the door. I smiled back.

"Hey Jack. Want to see your room? It's just down the hall from mine!" I grinned.  
"I'm Alex Cub now." I informed him. "So this place actually exists! I was certain that man was just mad. I mean, who would use children as spies?"  
"That's why we're so good. No one suspects us." That's what I was hoping too.

We had arrived at my room by this point. As James opened my door with a flourish, I could see the backpack that had all my gadgets in. As I walked in the room, I gasped in surprise. It was awesome. A massive TV, a double bed, draws and a telephone. There was a door leading into my own bathroom. On top of the draws were a timetable and some light blue tops. James saw this.  
"You're in the next bout of training?" he asked.  
"No, these tops mean I can go into outer space." Well, it wouldn't be the first time. James laughed at this.  
"You'll need to wear one to tea, which starts in about 10 minutes. Wait till you hear the stories people have!"

15 minutes later, I was sitting at a table, having been introduced as 'Alex Cub, formerly know as Jack Starbright.' Everyone immediately noticed my light blue shirt. The 'horror' tales began. Things like being woken up at 4 in the morning by being sprayed with a fire hose, or running until you're sick. These didn't scare me much, as the SAS had many worse ways of waking you up, though I was thinking of ways to stop people seeing my bullet wound in the showers...

* * *

The next day, I had a medical test. I woke up at 6. Some habits die hard. I looked at the rest of the timetable. Martial arts before lunch, and then nothing after. They next day was as empty, and the day after had 'basic training - starts at 5.30'. I figured if I woke up about half four, then I would have time to get everything sorted.

The medical went as expected. The man there was shocked at the bullet wound (it's surprisingly fun to basically tell someone from MI5 you were shot by SCORPIA but not have them realise), but was impressed with everything else. I only needed a few booster jabs, as Ian had already made the doctor give me most of the available vaccines. When I was on the running machine, the only reason I stopped then was that the doctor told me to. I think he had gotten bored.

Martial Arts was interesting. The teacher asked me what I could do, so I told her. She didn't believe that I was a 2nd Dan in karate, nor anything else I told her, so challenged me to a fight, though it was karate only. It was actually the best fight I'd had in ages. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of sweeping her off her feet when she had worn herself out from attacking. I had attacked a few times, but only to prove I could do some of the more advanced stuff. She was suitably impressed.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, nothing happened, except I heard a rumour that Large, the training instructor, had some contacts with the SAS, (he had possibly been a sergeant?) and was recruiting a unit to help with the training. I hoped to hell it wasn't K Unit. That would cause some awkward questions.

I went to bed at 9, figuring that that would give me about 7 hours sleep if nothing woke me up. At about 4, half an hour before I had decided to get up, someone walked into my room. The reason I knew this? They had woken me up by stubbing their toe on the door and swearing. It wasn't very loud, but it was enough to wake me up. I lay on my side pretending to be asleep. As soon as they turned their back to me, I leapt up and closed the door quietly. They heard the click of the door closing, span round and dropped whatever they had in their hand. It made a muffled thud, sounding as if it was was made of cloth with something heavy inside of it. I flicked on the lights. One of the training instructors was there, with a rucksack on the floor next to them.  
"Kid, turn the light off!"  
"Why?"  
"Just do it." they practically growled at me. I complied, then sighed.  
"So why are you here?"

"I need to give you your stuff." I held my hands out, hoping they'd get the hint. They indicated the rucksack they had dropped earlier.

"It's all in there." I walked over to it.

"Thanks." With that, they walked out the door. I looked at my clock. 4.15. I figured I might as well start the day now. I looked in the bag on the floor. A light blue t-shirt with a 2 on it, some trousers, some muddy socks and underwear, and some torn boots. I decided not to wear the underwear, socks and boots, because if it was anything like the SAS, I wouldn't want to be at a disadvantage. The rucksack had all sorts in it. I picked it up. It was lighter than I was made to carry at the SAS camp. It looked like I was in for an easy start.

* * *

At 5.05, I was ready. I figured that arriving early would look good, but could end up doing some form of exercise till the others turned up. I walked out the door at 10 past, and arrived at quarter to, a few minutes before a massive instructor, who I guessed was Large from the fact that he looked well over 7ft tall. He looked surprised that someone was waiting for him.

"What are you doing here?" he barked at me.

"Waiting for basic training to start, sir." I remembered someone had mentioned him being a sergeant, so didn't exactly want to get on his bad side immediately. He still looked puzzled.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Something went bump in the night. Right into my door." Large raised an eyebrow.

"How did they meet the door?"

"They, sir? I never said it was a person."

"How did _it _meet the door then?"

"Well, it sounded as if they stubbed their toe on the door. I never said it wasn't a person either. Sir" He looked ready to murder me. At that point, the person who was in my room earlier walked up.

"Large, the SAS unit is here."

"Bring them up here Kasakov. You, get in here." I followed Large into a concrete box. No windows, no heating and 10 rusty beds with numbers by them. I walked to the bed with a 2 on it. I placed the rucksack by the head of my bed, and stood at ease by the foot. Large walked in, with a unit following behind him. Damn. I recognised three of them. Trust my luck. Now I had to hope they didn't recognise me before I could get a chance to talk to them. Large was obviously giving them a tour.

"... and finally this is where the kiddies will be sleeping. As you can see, we already have one here." I was still standing at ease at this point. Large walked up to me suspiciously.

"What are you doing?"

"Standing at ease, sir." I replied, staring a a point just above his left ear.

"Why are you doing that?" It was easier than standing at attention.

"Seemed right, sir." He looked thrown.

"Well these are K Unit, the best the SAS has to offer." He swept an arm behind him, indicating the four soldiers. "They'll be training you for these 100 days."

"Why?" Large looked thrown by this.

"Why?"

"Well, you said they were the best... Yet they're here training us 'kiddies'. Why?" Eagle was looking proud, but was receiving silent daggers from the rest of the unit. Large looked like he was going to explode.

"That doesn't matter. All you need to know is that they will not go easy on you. These 100 days will be the worst of your life." I doubted it. I'd spent two weeks being called 'double oh nothing' at hell on earth, and seen Jack blown up in front of me. For an experiment. Large walked out, leaving me alone with K Unit. Eagle skipped over. Yes. Actual, proper skipping.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Alex Cub." I told him. Wolf span around at that, and Snake looked up from his conversation with the last member of the unit.

"Cub?" Eagle asked. "Didn't we spend two weeks with a ki..." Wolf had ran across the room, and clamped his hand over Eagles mouth.

"Sorry. Someone let him have sugar. And don't even think about licking me. You know what happened last time." I guessed that last part was for Eagle, not me. I was pretty sure I had not licked Wolf.  
"Well, funnily enough, I spent two weeks in a muddy hell about a year ago. I thought you looked familiar... guess I had better things to do with my time than think about your ugly mugs." Wolf looked ready to explode, Snake looked slightly ...ashamed? and Eagle looked like he was laughing from underneath Wolf's hand. The last member of the unit just looked confused.  
"You guys know this kid?" he asked.  
"No. I'm actually a figment of your imagination. You should be proud. Imagining something this handsome is no mean feat." Snake and Eagle were laughing now. Wolf seemed to have calmed down, and was standing there with a smirk on his face.  
"Hey, I didn't know you could be this funny." Eagle said, in-between chortles. I rolled my eyes.  
"Should get to know me before insulting me for two whole weeks."  
"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" the other member of the unit shouted.  
"Hey, don't get your pants in a twist... What is your name again? I don't think we've been introduced properly." I extended a hand. "I'm Alex Cub, nice to meet you."  
"Uh..." He looks unsure at what was happening.  
"Forgotten your own name? Or forgotten what manners are? I suppose you don't get many with these three..." They all looked very indignant at this.  
"I'm Jackdaw. Nice to meet you too." He shook my hand warily and looked as if he wanted to know how I knew K Unit. Luckily, Large walked back in with Kasakov. He seemed surprised that we were shaking hands.  
"What are you doing?" Kasakov asked.  
"Does no-one know what a handshake is any more?" K Unit laughed behind me, Kasakov smiled, but Large... Well. He turned around and punched the wall. There was a massive fist sized dent, and Large's fingers didn't seem to be bending the right way. If the language coming out of his mouth was anything to go by, they were broken. I had broken the head trainer, and it wasn't even 6am on the first day. Kasakov took Large off to the medical rooms. Not soon after, another trainee walked in.  
"Was that Large with a broken hand?" K Unit simply laughed.

* * *

At about 7, everyone was here. All we were waiting for was someone to yell at us. After half an hour, Kasakov rushed in.  
"Right. As I'm sure you we aware, Large is currently ...predisposed. So for now, I will take you through basic training, with the aid of K Unit here. They are Wolf, Snake, Eagle and Jackdaw. At 0545 every morning you will wake up. Breakfast is from 0550 to 0615. After breakfast, there will be some form of exercise. It may be press ups, it may be a run over the assault course. At 0800, lessons begin. You will have martial arts for two hours, then languages for another two. At twelve, there will be a half hour break for lunch if you are lucky enough to get it. If not, we will run the assault course. After these lovely activities, we will split into groups. You will alternate between Espionage, Survival, Weaponry, and anything else you may need, until 1800. Then, you will come back here for a shower. After you have finished, you will clean and polish your shoes. 1900 will be dinner. 1930 to 2030 is homework from your lessons. 2045 is lights out. Is that clear?" I was the only one that said anything (a quiet 'yes sir'). "I SAID, IS THAT CLEAR?" There was a much louder chorus of 'yes sir's this time. "Good. Any questions?" A scrawny blonde boy, who stood at bed 5, raised his hand tentatively.  
"Which members of K Unit are which, sir?" he asked in a quivering voice. I didn't expect him to last too long.  
"That's for them to know and you to figure out. First person to do it gets a special prize." That didn't sound too good. But, then again, if someone like the one at bed 5 got it, then they'd probably die while doing whatever they planned. But that's if it's bad. If it was good, then they could really use that... My thoughts were interrupted by Kasakov shouting at us to introduce ourselves to our partners. I turned to the person who was standing at bed one.  
"Hi," I smiled, "I'm Alex Cub" I held out my hand.  
"Corinne Politik" she replied, shaking my hand. "You were deep in thought a second a go. Care to explain?"  
"Just trying to work out what the 'special prize' is, and how long before I claim it."  
"You think you know who's who?" Corinne asked sceptically.  
"No. I know who's who. I just need to know what the prize is."

"And how do you know?" I smirked.

"Magic."

The day passed remarkably quickly. We got in one round of the assault course before lessons started. It was easy. It was also covered in mud. Actually, everywhere was covered in mud. This place was reminding me of Brecon Beacons more an more the longer I spent in it. Though, at least I wasn't being called...

"Come on, you bunch of wannabe spies! Double-oh-seven? More like double-oh-nothing!" Wolf yelled. He must really want kids one day...


	3. Chapter 3

Kasakov's third person time (about two months in)

Kasakov liked how Alex Cub was turning out to be one of the best trainees they ever had. The kid was just so damn good. He got the special prize for working out who K Unit were (though that wasn't much of a surprise). He did wait a week, probably to see if anyone else got it first. He picked up his language (Hindu, because he knew nearly all the other languages we had to offer) in the first month, and could hold a semi decent conversation with the teacher. He could do all the runs, without getting out of breath. He knew all the martial arts moves, but didn't obliterate his partner in the sparring. He actually lost a few matches! He could shoot bullseye every time with a gun. Without even looking. After he'd been blindfolded. And span round. And as for stealth... It was like he was a ghost, or a shadow. He just wasn't there. The one time he was found, was when the branch he was sitting on snapped. He was left hanging from the tree, and K Unit, very shocked, as the branch had nearly hit a very hyper Eagle. Well... probably annoyed that it didn't hit Eagle. When Kasakov punished him for that (spend the whole day without food), he went and had his most spectacular day yet! It was as if he did it just to prove a point. He still didn't know how he managed to survive. K Unit were definitely going tougher on him than on any of the others, but it didn't affect him at all. Even with all his scars. This guy was born to be a spy...

* * *

Alex's POV

On the 95th day, we were taken out of the compound. We were going to New Zealand! Jack had always wanted to go there... I hadn't thought about Jack much recently, mainly because I was trying not to cause too much trouble, like finish the assault course half an hour before the quickest time. That would raise too many questions. It was surprisingly exhausting, trying to do bad. Anyway, I had survived 95 days of K Unit pushing me harder than anyone else, and no-one noticed. Well, none of the trainees anyway. And now we were going to New Zealand to do one last bit of survival training. We had the 96th day to recover from jet-lag, but on the 97th we were being dropped off in the middle of a forest, and had to follow instructions to find different markers. I was sat next to Corinne on the plane. She was listening to music, and fell asleep about a third of the way there. Sleep sounded like a good idea, but I wanted to get over the jet lag quickly, so that meant not falling asleep until about 7 or 8 local time. We got to the hotel at 6, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I decided to catch up on the news from around the world. From what I could see, no-one had taken over the world, but there were a few suspicious deaths... but that was all. It sounded too quiet, but then most of the things I was looking out for, weren't reported in the everyday news. I considered hacking into MI6 just to see whether I still could, but I'd probably fry all the computers in the hotel. By the time I had logged off, it was 8.30, and I was surprised I was still awake. I walked up to my room. I was sharing with the weedy blonde kid. He had survived, to my surprise. Everyone had. I was still thinking about this when I fell asleep.

* * *

I was woken up at about 5.30, when someone sneaked into the room. I lay there, pretending to still be asleep. I heard them whispering to another person.

"Come on!"

"I'm not the one with the nail polish!"

"Shhhh! You'll wake them up!"

"Too late" I whispered back. Both of them jumped. "But I bet K Unit is still asleep." I could see one smile at that.

"True. You want to come along?"

"Why me?" They snorted.

"Why you? Because you're the best! You can hide from everyone, then it turns out you were just leaning against a tree."

"And you don't want to get in trouble with K Unit."

"...Yeah."

"Fine."

Almost half an hour later, we were standing by the reception with Kasakov, waiting for K Unit. They came down the stairs with a minute to go before we left. Kasakov looked suitably annoyed.

"A group of teenagers can beat the best of the SAS at timekeeping?"

"Well-" Wolf started

"LOOK AT MY NAILS!" Eagle yelled. "THEY'RE PINK AND SPARKLY!" Wolf looked ready to punch Eagle. Kasakov looked stunned. Snake tried to calm Eagle down. It didn't work, and we saw his nails were pink and sparkly too.

"Yeah, we don't know how he got in the SAS either." Jackdaw said. Kasakov just shook his head and walked out the door. We followed. There was an army Jeep sitting there. We piled in, CHERUBs in the back, K Unit in the front with Kasakov as the driver.

* * *

After half an hour of teasing K Unit about their nails, Kasakov stopped the car.

"Numbers 1 & 2, get out here. There should be packs with instructions of where to go next in those bushes." Corinne and I clambered out of the car. Kasakov drove off leaving a cloud of dust for us to choke on. We retrieved the packs, and checked what was in them. Useful things, like maps, rope and water bottles, but also things like a hardback copy of _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows _and a brick. An actual house brick. Corinne found her letter and swore.

"It's in Russian."

"Mines in Hindu. Want to swap?"

"You keep it. What does yours say anyway?"

"Walk north-north-west for about 20 miles, then follow the river until you get to the boat. Take a break overnight"

"What's at the boat?"  
"More instructions is my guess."

* * *

After a day and about two and a half hours walking (we did sleep in the middle) through dense, green jungle, we stopped.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" I asked. Corinne shushed me.

"Listen." There was some bird calls, the wind rustling the leaves and...

"Water! That way." I pointed somewhere to my left, and we set off on that direction. 10 minutes later, we were at a massive waterfall.

"Lots of water."

"And there's the boat." Corinne pointed downstream. "Now how do we get down?"

"Do you still have the rope?"

"Yep. It's just here." She handed me the rope. I looked for somewhere to attach it. There was a sturdy tree close enough to the edge to keep the rope long enough, but far enough away that it wouldn't fall down whilst we were abseiling down. I made it down without any incidents, but as Corinne was about to jump for the last time, the rope snapped. Fortunately, she wasn't harmed, just a bit shaken. We made it to the boat. There were two envelopes, and a set of keys. Lots of keys.

"Follow the river for 18 miles. Good luck finding the right key!" Corinne read out. "Which key are we going to use?"

"We're not" I replied from beside the steering wheel, trying to work out which wore would go where.

"You're hot-wiring the boat?"

"It'll save time. How much fuel is there in the tank?"

"It's full. This seems almost too easy."

"You're right... Where's the engine on this?"

"In the front. Why?"

"It's too easy. There has to be something." I was right. I could see something dripping from a pipe. It was black and smelt funny. "There a hole in one of the fuel pipes." I called out. "We should get going soon before this all runs out."

We set off fairly quickly. We were alright for about 8 miles, when suddenly there was a massive bang.

"What was that?" Corinne asked.

"It sounded like a gunshot..." Why were they shooting at us?

"A what?! Why would the be shooting at us?"

"They're not." I pointed to the fuel needle, which was rapidly decreasing. "They're shooting for the pipes."

"Wouldn't that cause a spark?" Corinne pointed out.

"Shit." We grabbed the packs and jumped overboard. Just in time, because as soon as I hit the water, the boat blew up.

"Are they trying to kill us?" Corinne exclaimed.

"I hope not." Wouldn't be the first time someone's tried. "There's path over there. We'll have to walk the rest of the way."

* * *

About 6 hours later we arrived at a red flag, with envelopes at the bottom. Around it were some tents. Everyone else was there, even Kasakov and K Unit."

"What took you so long?" Wolf asked.

"The boat blew up." I stated. Stunned silence. Even Kasakov looked stunned. "I take it that wasn't supposed to happen then."

"Why are you so calm?" the blonde boy asked. I really needed to learn his name.

"Well... I was in a gang before CHERUB. They weren't exactly the most ...law-abiding of groups, though we were better than our rivals." I caught myself rubbing my chest at this.

"Which gang were you in? And who were your enemies?" Corinne asked.

"We were called 6," Snake choked on his drink at this "And The Silver Scorpion were our rivals." K Unit were looking deep in thought at this. Apart from Eagle, who had got distracted by a butterfly, just before I told them which gang I was in.

"You were part of 6?" Jackdaw asked incredulously.  
"Ever meet a man called Ben Daniels?" Wolf asked.  
"The name sounds familiar..." I replied. Snakes eyes were going wider and wider.  
"But I'm glad I'm out of it now. Probably would have ended up in jail..."

"Why did you rub your chest earlier?" Snake asked.

"Ah... There's a good reason for that."

"What is it?"

"I... um... I kind of got hit by a bullet."  
"You got SHOT?" Everyone, but not Corinne, exclaimed.

"That explains why you don't like taking your top off." She stated.

"Hey!" I was trying to get attention away from my wound. It hasn't hurt for a while, and I could tell Snake was going to go all mother hen on me.

"What if it was that group... The one that caught four CHERUBs and me a few days before I came here... I can't remember their name. They knew about you." Silence.  
"But no-one knows about us. That's why we're so good."  
"Apparently someone does."

* * *

That night, I could hear the adults (Eagle was asleep in his tent) discussing what I had said earlier, so I decided to watch them from the shadows. Yes, I was sitting in a tree again. It's not my fault they were having such interesting conversations which were keeping me from sleeping.  
"Who was he talking about?" Wolf asked.  
"The incident Alex was referring to, they were caught by someone claiming to be SCORPIA." Kasakov explained. There was a sharp intake of breath from K Unit.

"And they survived?" Jackdaw asked incredulously.

"That's why we don't believe them. Also, they admitted to only pretending to be them after they woke up in our custody."

"They were asleep when you found them."

"I'm getting tired, guys." Jackdaw said. "See you tomorrow." There was a chorus of nights, and Kasakov continued directly on with his story.  
"No. We found them unconscious. Apparently, the last person they talked to was Alex." K Unit didn't seem too surprised by that.

"He's one of the best we've had. Even with his luck of the devil. It's like he was born to be a spy."

"Yeah... It seems like spying's in his blood." I smirked at that. A parent, and an uncle worked for MI6 and people wouldn't expect me to spy? At this point, the aforementioned luck of the devil struck again. The branch I was sitting on snapped, and I was sent crashing through the tree. I landed in a dazed heap at the bottom, with a very pissed off Wolf and Kasakov, a shocked Snake and a chortling Eagle, staring at me.

"What? You said I was born to be a spy. When did Eagle turn up?"

"Even with your devil's luck." Wolf added.

"You know, it's not the first time you've fell out of a tree at us. Something you want us to know?" Eagle added.

* * *

The next morning came far too soon, in my opinion, even though it was the last day. Kasakov went off to bed after checking if I was ok, saying 'don't wake up late tomorrow. 0600, whether you like it or not.' K Unit and I had walked away from the camp to talk so we didn't disturb anyone else. They wanted to know what I had to do with 6, and whether it was MI6. I told them everything. Well, I left out who my parents were, who Ian was and what happened to Jack, and some of the more gruesome details from my missions, my real name, and the fact that I trained with SCORPIA, but they got the basics. Actually, I only told them the basics – I'd been on 9 missions, but I didn't mention Ben once and that I was undercover at the moment. I also told them about what my cover was here. They took while guessing who The Silver Scorpion were though. I almost had to tell them! Anyway, after everyone got up, we had a 6 hour hike to where a helicopter was waiting to take us back to England. Everyone had to stay together though, so Corinne and I couldn't turn up an hour early, which was a shame. After about 4 hours, I looked up to the sky to see a quite low aeroplane rising into the sky. Another half hour after that, I could hear rumblings in the distance. When we arrived at the airport, I watched the other trainees faces. Some of them were quite funny. Corinne, however, didn't seem too surprised. When I asked her why she replied "I'd already seen two planes by the time you saw your first."

We arrived back home without anything going wrong, though Corinne seemed concerned about something.

"What's up?" I asked.

"We don't have our shirts yet." She was right. In GMT, we hadn't finished the 100th day, and you only got the shirts after you completed all of the days. When we got back to camp, her concern seemed reasonable now. We were lead back to the training grounds.

"To get your grey shirts" Kasakov announced "You must beat one of K Unit at this assault course. Only one of you may partake, so choose wisely." We huddled in a group. The scrawny blonde boy (I found out his name was John) asked

"Who wants to to it?" No one volunteered. It was silent for about a minute.

"I will if no-one else wants to." I offered.

"Can you win against a member of the SAS?" John asked.

"Can you?" Corinne retorted. "'Cause I think Alex could. He's been holding back the whole time. Yes, I did notice. Did you expect me not to?"

"Did you just say that in one breath?" I asked.

"Yes. Now do you want to beat K Unit or not?"

"Might as well."

I walked up to the start line. Jackdaw was waiting for me. He looked completely sure of himself. It looked like he was going to underestimate me. I didn't want to underestimate him though.

"You two ready?" Kasakov asked. Jackdaw nodded.

"Good luck." I whispered to Jackdaw.

"You'll need it more, kid." I smiled.

"GO" Kasakov shouted. Jackdaw sped of the line. I ran up to him, and tripped him over. I could hear laughter behind me, but I ran on ahead and got across the course in a record time – half an hour faster than the record. Jackdaw was 15 minutes behind me.

"You tripped me up." he stated.

"Well noticed."

"That's unfair."

"Life's unfair."

"That cliché's overused."

"It's true."

"You cheated."

"Were there rules?"

"..." I smiled.

"Can I have the grey shirts now?" I asked Kasakov who'd been standing behind me for the argument. I turned round to see him wipe the surprised look off his face.

* * *

By the time I got up the next day (everything had finished about 9pm, and we were still jet lagged) it was lunchtime. I walked to lunch where everyone was eating. I sat next to James who was telling a story about a football match. About 10 minutes after I sat down he noticed me.

"... and then I went -bloody hell Alex when did you get here?"

"Was I in that football match? And about 10 minutes ago. Everyone else noticed." Everyone else was pissing their pants at this point.

"Hey, well done! You passed!" Lauren said, having noticed my shirt. At this everyone seemed to notice the grey shirt I was wearing. Congratulations came in from everyone.

"So? How hard was it?"

"I bet you found it easy, right?" I turned round to see Corinne standing there. "Can I sit down here?" I moved up a bit, and she sat down.

"So, Alex, who's this?" James asked.

"This is Corinne. She was my partner in basic training. Which, no I did not find easy, but wasn't overly hard either." No-one believed me. Probably because they couldn't imagine harder than basic training. I just hoped they didn't think that was as hard as life was going to get. At this point, someone came up to me

"Alex Cub?" They asked

"No. He's over there." I said and pointed in a random direction. They believed me! Poor kid. After a minute, they came back, looking slightly annoyed.

"Zara wants to see you when you've finished." He really didn't look very happy. I quickly finished up my lunch.


	4. Chapter 4

In Zara's office I got a shock.

"I'm going where?"

"Brecon Beacons. Apparently the SAS soldiers were looking for future recruits. They want you to spend some time, along with a few others they picked out."

"Who else is going?"

"Just a few people from different schools around the country. It's only one from each place"

"Which schools?" Please don't let it be mine, Please don't let it be mine

"Um... Park Academy from Manchester, Brookland School in London" Damn. But it was only one, so that wasn't as bad. "King Edward School, London again and Smithdon High School in Norwich. This is a trial run, which is why there's only 4 other schools."

"When do I go?"

"In a month. You'll be going from Henderson's Academy, a specialist language and sports school. In the meantime, I have your timetable for your lessons." I took it out of her hands.

"I get to teach?"

"Everyone has to. We choose your best subject, but it was a close call between that and martial arts, but you seem almost too advanced to teach the younger children."

"Too advanced?"  
"You beat the teacher."

"Whoops?" I said with a smirk on my face.

"Anyway, you start this tomorrow, though you can start today if you want." Zara said while rolling her eyes.

"Thanks." I stood up and walked out, trying to work out where my first lesson was. It was a Friday, and almost 10 o'clock, so I should be going to... Swahili. Another language? This should be fun. How quickly can I master this language?

A month later, I was called back into Zara's office.

"Do you remember what we talked about last?"

"Me beating the martial arts teacher."

"Don't be smart." I gave her the most innocent look I could. "That won't work either. Anyway, tomorrow you will be going to the SAS for a month. You'll be Alex Cub from Henderson's Academy, a specialist PE and language school. You'll be teamed up with the unit that picked you, K Unit." Great, a month in hell with them. Such fun! "The instructors won't know you're part of CHERUB, but the sergeant, and obviously K Unit will. Don't let anyone find out about us. And don't show us up." She handed me a mobile phone. "Don't lose this. I want weekly text updates. Send it to the number under my name. If anything disastrous happens, ring it immediately, though I don't know what could happen at a camp full of SAS soldiers."

"So I have to make sure no-one finds out I'm a spy, while simultaneously being the best one there?" Sounded easy enough. That was what I was doing at the moment, wasn't it?

"Yes. Go pack your stuff." I turned to leave. I heard a quiet "Good luck" when I closed the door.

Back in my room, I had to decide what to take. I ended up packing Smithers' gadgets, a couple of sets of normal clothes, toiletries and the phone Zara had given me. Now I had to text MI5 and MI6, while being the best there is, but not making anyone suspicious for both of them. God, life was getting confusing.

* * *

I woke up at about 5 the next morning, and almost swore. I had half an hour to get ready, and get down to the reception so I could meet the driver. I managed to grab a piece of toast on the way down. I arrived in the reception area at 5.29. No-one was there. I nibbled at my toast. A minute later, Crawley walked in, talking to Zara.

"..and this is the reception for the site. Ah, Alex nice to see you're here on time."  
"Didn't think I'd make it?"

"Well... Anyhow, this is John Crawley, from MI6. He's going to be driving you to the camp. This is Alex Cub, one of our new recruits, and the best we've ever had. It's like he was made for the life of a spy." Crawley smiled at this.

"Well, I just hopes he decides to become one! MI6 is always in need of new recruits." I almost burst out laughing. I could see a ghost of a smile on Crawley's mouth.

"We'll see, Crawley. We'll see."

Almost 6 hours later, we arrived at the SAS camp. I had updated Crawley on what had been happening at CHERUB. For some reason, I had kept forgetting to text Smithers. I probably ought to stop him worrying... Before I could do anything about it, I was standing in front of the sergeant, with four other teenagers.

"Right. I do not want any of you here. I do not know why anyone thought this would be a good idea. You will be grouped with the unit that thought you would be a good idea. You will follow their training schedule to the letter. If you miss out I will punish you. I can, and will send you away if you turn out to be completely unsuitable. Any questions, you can save for your units. Dismissed." The sergeant stalked away. I could see the units hiding in the forest. I gave K Unit a little wave behind my back, and turned to the other kids. There were 3 people I didn't recognise, and...

"Tom!" I exclaimed.

"Alex! How are you? I haven't seen you in ages! Are you still..." He paused for a second. "Is that why you're here? Is that why we're here? Have you beaten up any bad guys lately? I haven't seen any suspicious things on the news." He whispered in my ear, in one breath

"I'll explain later." I said trying not to laugh "The units are hiding in the trees, and shouldn't we meet the other people stranded here with us?"

"Oh! Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Tom bounded up to them, and stuck out his hand.

"Hey! I'm Tom, this is Alex. What're your names?" A brown haired and eyed, average height boy shook Tom's hand.  
"I'm Tony Wing, from Norwich. How do you two know each other?"  
"We used to go to school together." I answered quickly. Tom pouted. A ginger kid with one green eye, one blue laughed. "I'm Joe Dean. Manchester, born and raised. This is turning out to be better than I thought it would be."  
"Well, this is touching and all, but don't you kiddies want to put your stuff away?" A gruff voice from behind me said.  
"I'm Leopard, from F Unit. I need Wing." Tony walked over.  
"Have fun!" he called out, waving at us as he walked away. Tom turned to the last person. He was small, with light brown hair and blue eyes which kept nervously shifting from place to place.  
"So who are you?" he inquired.  
"What's it to you?" came the sullen reply.  
"That's a funny name. Do you have a nickname or anything? Cause, if not I have the perfect one for you. You know, you look a bit like Alex..."  
"Harris, stop antagonizing this poor kid. You get to see this wonderful place now, and get to love it as much as we do." Tom skipped after the man. I felt sorry for his unit. I turned around, to see something I'd never expected.

"Did SCORPIA not pay well enough then Nyoka?" I called out to the man standing at the back of a unit. There was a lot of confusion at that. The other teenager looked panicked at that.

"He's from SCORPIA?" he asked hurriedly.

"No. But he did keep 5 kids in a cell. Though that didn't last long." The teen looked worried and relieved simultaneously. I didn't realise that was possible. He held out his hand.

"I'm Felix. Felix Lester."

"Have I met you before? Because I recognise your name..." What the hell was Felix Lester, a computer whiz, doing at an SAS camp? And why did he jump when I said SCORPIA? Before I could get further into my thoughts, Nyoka came up to me.

"What did you call me? And why the hell do you think I was working for SCORPIA?"

"Don't you remember? You drugged five teenagers, held them in a cell and told them you were from SCORPIA. It didn't last long, however, because you thought I couldn't hurt you cause I was a child. I got you to tell me all of your ravings, just so 'I didn't have to repeat anything'. I don't suppose you'd remember the rest of the story as you were unconscious." Nyoka had gotten paler and paler as I continued. When I finished he looked like he was about to faint.

"You... You were one of those kids?"

"I bet you can guess which one, or am I overestimating you intelligence?" He growled at me. Actually growled. I'd only heard Wolf do that.

"I can make your life a living hell."

"Wanna bet?" I think he gave up at that point.

"Lester, come with me. We need to meet up with the rest of the unit" Felix followed him fearfully. I waited until they had gone round the corner, and then set off in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Cub!" I heard Eagle yell. "Where do you think you're going."

"To the hut. I don't fancy running a few extra miles, just because you think we should go back via the lake."

* * *

I entered the mess hall a few hours later, for tea. I met a very disgruntled Tom.

"They made me run!"

"That's not the worse they've got up their sleeves." I muttered to him.

"You need to tell me what you've been up to anyway!"

"Not here. Want to go for a walk later?"

"As soon as I've finished this... whatever it is." With that, he quickly cleared his plate, whilst holding his nose.

"Now come on!" Tom dragged me out by my arm. After a while he said "OK! Now, spill." I told him everything.

"Pah! You fell out of a tree at K Unit! Twice!" He laughed. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes. You ignore the fact that I found out about a whole school of under-aged spies working willingly for MI5, and focus on the main point of this story – I love falling out of trees at K Unit."

"Didn't you work for MI5 at one point? Why couldn't they use their own people?"

"These kids have an ethics committee. I wonder what they'd rank my missions as..." I was lost in thought for a second. Then I heard a twig snap. It was quite a way away. Shit. Had someone overheard what I'd told Tom? The next twig that snapped was closer. Still not good, but meant that they hadn't heard my story. Or they had, and were still coming closer. I quickly climbed up a tree.

"Alex? Where'd you go?" Damn. I forgot about Tom. Whoops. Then he heard another twig snapping.

"Alex?" He called out again.

"Nope." A cheery voice yelled back.

"Joe!" Tom yelled, a smile on his face.

"Nope!"

"Eagle?" I yelled

"Hey, kid, how'd you guess?" I could hear the pout in his voice. He hadn't heard that the voice came from a different place. And were completely different.

"I'm just so awesome." Tom replied. I rolled my eyes. I considered jumping out the tree at Eagle... though he'd probably think I fell. Again. For the third time.

"Have you seen Cub around?" Eagle asked.

"He was here a second ago..." Tom replied "If you find him, tell him I'm going to punch him. When I see him."

"Can I do it for you?"

"No."

"Awwww." I didn't think it was someone to look so similar to a kicked puppy.

"You can punch him anyway. Just don't blame it on me." Eagle's face lit up. I made a mental note to avoid him for a few hours, until he forgot about this.

"Well, if you see him, tell him to get himself back to the hut, pronto." Eagle stumbled off. I jumped down from the tree.  
"We should get going then." I said loudly  
"Jesus Christ Alex!" tom exclaimed. "Where were you?" I pointed at the tree.  
"Come on, we've got to beat Eagle back to the hut."

* * *

I managed to beat Eagle by about five minutes. Once the whole unit was assembled, Wolf started talking.  
"Right. We have the honour of helping out the new recruits with their stealth in a forest. Each of us will have different coloured paint balls. Jackdaw, you'll have black, Snake green, Eagle purple, I'm yellow, and Cub's red. If you get shot in a limb, you can't use it. If you get hit twice like that, you're dead. If you get hit in the torso or head, you're instantly dead. If you die... Well, I hope you like cooking."  
"Will any of the other units be 'helping' the recruits?" I asked.  
"Well... I'm not supposed to tell you that F Unit are helping out, nor that C Unit, they have Harris with them, will be there as well. The sergeant has told them about each other, but not us. We have to get as many as possible." I grinned. I already had about eight different plans. Wolf carried on. "This will all start at 1900 hours tomorrow. Everyone else will be arriving at 1930. We have to be nowhere near them until they start, then it's us vs. them. Get a good nights sleep tonight." With that, Wolf turned around and went into his bed. I decided to follow his lead.

The next evening, I managed to get away from Tom, and go to the paint ball storage area. Wolf was the only one not there. I got my things prepared, and by the time I had finished, Wolf had appeared.  
"Right. You've got 15 minutes before anyone else shows up. Go and get a good hiding place. You'll hear the whistle that means start. And remember, get everybody."  
"Everybody?" I asked  
"No, just the trees. Yes, of course everyone." I smiled. "OK!" I quickly shot Wolf, and ran off into the forest. I heard an outraged cry, and someone say "Well, you did say everyone."

I didn't have to wait long past the 15 minutes before I heard someone approaching my perch in a tree. They weren't being very quiet, so was either a recruit, Tom or Tony. I moved carefully round the tree, to try and by a clear shot. I recognised the back of Tom's head. I smiled evilly, deciding how to let Tom know I was there. I shot twice. Once at his leg. Once at his buttocks. Both hit their target. Tom was out, and would have a couple of painful bruises tomorrow. I slipped down the opposite side of the tree, and ran to find more people to shoot. I heard a group of recruits coming my way. Perfect. I put the most 'don't hurt me I'm an innocent lost boy' look I could on my face, and stumbled noisily towards them, using my paint ball gun as a crutch. They heard me coming (a deaf person would hear me coming), and instantly pointed their guns at me. I froze, the scared look still on my face. They immediately lowered their guns and looked at each other.  
"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?" one asked, coming closer. I didn't say anything. The rest of his unit were slowly following behind him. I waited until they were about five meters away, they pulled up my gun and shot them all. I almost burst out laughing at the shock and confusion on their faces.  
"I'm in uniform, and have a gun. Did think I'm harmless because I'm an innocent child?" I walked off leisurely, chuckling to myself at their confused and outraged faces.

* * *

By the end of the game, I had got the rest of K Unit, F Unit, C Unit and quite a lot of the recruits, using the same trick. It's amazing the compassion the SAS will show towards an injured child. Well, K Unit didn't get to see that trick, though it would probably work on Snake... But he was with Jackdaw, so that screwed that plan up. So I just shot them from a tree. I didn't fall out of it either. Anyway, I managed to get back to the sergeant without being shot once. I was the only one with a clean uniform. There was a lot of red paint on uniforms. I didn't get that many, did I? There were... one.. two without red paint on. Including me, and the sergeant. I could see the sergeant was about to explode. And by golly, explode he did.  
"YOU ALL GOT DEFEATED BY ONE PERSON. ONE! WHO HAD THE RED PAINT?" I stood up cautiously. A few people looked shocked. Tom looked outraged and mouthed 'You shot me in the arse'. The sergeants rant this time round made the original shouting sound like a piece of relaxing classical music.  
"YOU ARE THE BEST ENGLAND HAS TO OFFER. AND YOU GOT BEATEN BY A RUDDY TEENAGER. I SHOULD BIN THE LOT OF YOU BERE AND NOW. HOWEVER, AS I CANNOT DO THAT, YOU WILL ALL RECIVE PUNISHMENT FOR TWO MONTHS. YOU WILL HAVE NO FREE TIME, AND THIS ENTIRE PLACE WILL BE SPOTLESS. THE FOOD WILL BE FANTASTIC. THE ONLY ONE GETTING OFF WILL BE CUB HERE." There was silence for a second, then a recruit put up a hand.  
"Sir? Do you mean to say that the legendary 'Cub' that everyone says can outdo us, is this kid here?" There was a definite emphasis on kid. The sergeant looked confused for a second.  
"DO YOU NOT KNOW ABOUT THE RECRUITMENT GUIDELINES? YOU HAVE TO BE EIGHTEEN AT LEAST TO JOIN THE SAS. THESE KIDDIES HERE ARE THE FIRST EVER TO EXPERIENCE SAS TRAINING BEFORE EVER BEING ABLE TO APPLY. THE SOLDIER CUB WAS THE MOST IMPRESSIVE RECRUIT ANYONE HAS EVER SEEN. HE EVEN BEAT THE FASTEST TIME ON THE ASSAULT COURSE. DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS _KID _COULD?" I smiled. He hadn't said I wasn't Cub. Wait... Cub had beaten the best time? That meant I had taken less than 15 minutes to do it... I wonder if I could do that again... After going on nine missions, I wonder how much I've improved. I was pulled out of my thoughts by the SAS men leaving. Tom came up to me.  
"You shot me. IN THE ARSE."  
"Well noticed."  
"I won't be able to sit properly for ages!"  
"You sit properly in the first place? Anyway, the bruise will only be there for a couple of weeks" I got a mini glare for that.  
"Even worse, I can't impress people with it! I can't tell people I was shot in the bottom!"  
"Well, you could... you'd just become a laughing stock." Tom rolled his eyes and followed his unit to their hut. I walked across to K Unit.  
"I hold the record for the assault course?" I asked Snake quietly.  
"12 minutes, 42 seconds. Beat Wolf by about a minute. That was a sore point for him. He wants you to do it quicker when we next run it. He's also really annoyed that you shot him."  
"Well he did say everyone." Snake laughed.  
"I know. Just please don't piss him off more. We all have to live with him." I grinned.  
"I'll do my best."

* * *

"CUB!" I jolted upright, nearly falling out of my bed in the process. My eyes focused, and I was unprepared for what I saw. Wolf, covered in pink and purple feathers. I couldn't contain my laughter.

"Bloody hell... who knew you had a fetish for dressing up as a pink and purple chicken?" I said, almost in tears.

"You're on kitchen duty for a week."

"What?" I yelled, indignantly. "That wasn't me. I had enough fun shooting everyone yesterday." Eagle walked in at this point. He fell on the floor.

"Snake!" he yelled. "I told you it'd work!" Snake cautiously entered through the open door, and quickly retreated again at the sight of Wolf. Jackdaw came in a minute later.

"Why is Snake... oh. Eagle, I told you you'd get Wolf, not the sergeant."

"He was aiming for the sergeant?" I asked. Jackdaw nodded.

"He and Eagle... don't see quite eye to eye." he explained. "Something about Eagle, and a bet that he couldn't talk for two months, about a year ago."

"That'd be why he didn't talk much."

"Probably. Anyway, we've got to get breakfast, then we're running the assault course."

"Fun." I replied, monotonously.

The assault course hadn't change at all. Wolf sent me first, as he wanted to see 'whether little Cub had improved in a year.' I rolled my eyes and set off. It seemed... well, easier to say the least. I finished without becoming too out of breath. Wolf looked up at me, down at the stopwatch, and up at me again. His mouth was open.

"You look like a fish" I said. He closed his mouth. "So, how good was I?"

"10 minutes, 29 seconds." Jackdaw read out. Stunned silence.

"That can't be right. He's not even out of breath." Snake said.

"Go do it again. And _try _this time." So I did. Again. And again. And again. Eventually the rest just gave up.

"8 minutes, 40 seconds. It's definitely not the stopwatch. I think the record needs to be changed. Go find the sergeant, and tell him." Wolf said. I was crouched on the floor, panting.

"Thank... God... please... don't make... me do it... that many... times again." I panted.

"Not today, Cub. Not today."

* * *

A couple of days later, we were on the shooting range, and the teacher there was treating me like an idiot. I suppose he hadn't heard of my single-handed massacre of the recruits and 3 units, and didn't know I was a spy. It didn't help. He kept saying things like 'make sure you always point the gun down the range' and 'keep the safety on unless you're shooting'. He was just so patronising. Eventually I snapped.

"Look, I know how to use a gun, ok? Can I please just shoot now?" He looked at me sceptically.

"Fine, kid. Just make sure you hit the target ok?" I was fuming by now. I took a glance at the target, memorised where it was, looked the teacher straight in the eye and shot until the gun clicked empty. He seemed slightly unsettled that I had done that without blinking, or changing expression. He went to get the target, and stopped a few steps away from it. He leaned in closer to look at the target. I guess I'd done better than he'd been expecting. He brought the target back up. I could see see one hole in the middle, though it seems one bullet was slightly off. I frowned.

"Why are you frowning?" the teacher asked. "This is incredible!" I pointed to the slightly off-centre hole.

"That's why I'm frowning. I haven't shot in a while, and it shows."

"Kid. This is the best shooting I've ever seen! And you did it with only a glance at the target! If only the recruits could shoot like you..." K Unit had seen me shoot without looking. Damn. I hoped they wouldn't ask too many questions...

"Where on earth did you learn to shoot like that?" Wolf asked.

"You know I was in a gang." I said.

"Still, I don't know anyone who can shoot that well."

"You do. Me." I stood back, ignoring their questioning looks, and waited for K Unit to get on with their shooting. Snake was ok, getting them grouped around the middle. Eagle... was obviously the sharp-shooter. Most grouped around the bulls-eye, with 3 or 4 a bit further out. Wolf was closer to Snakes standard, but got a couple in the bullseye. Jackdaw was confusing. He got on in the bulls-eye, then one in the 3rd ring. Another bullet got in the 5th, so one went in the 4th. They were all grouped, but it seemed almost deliberate. All too soon they finished. The next thing scheduled for us was a talk on none other than SCORPIA. When we arrived, Nyoka and Felix's unit were waiting. This would be interesting, for lack of a better word.


	5. Chapter 5

There were two rows of seats, 5 chairs in each row. K Unit got the row at the back. I was sat on the edge, with Snake next to me, Felix in front, and Nyoka was all the way over the other side. The teacher stood at the very front.

"Today" he started "We will be learning about SCORPIA. SCORPIA are a multi-national terrorist organisation. They specialise in Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence and Assassination..." The teacher carried on like this for a while, telling us the history of them. I'd heard it all before, and with a lot more detail. Well, it had come straight from the horses mouth, so that wasn't surprising. I tuned back in when he said "...and these are some of the known assassins SCORPIA has." A picture of Yassen Gregorovich appeared on the screen. "This is Yassen Gregorovich, also known as Cossack. He was one of their most successful assassins, until he got shot on Air Force One by an MI6 operative." They'd got that wrong. It was Damien Cray who shot him. But I suppose that was hushed up. The teacher had moved on to a rather familiar face. "This is John Rider, also known as Hunter." Shit. This lesson was not going to go well. "He betrayed MI6, and his country to join SCORPIA" As an undercover agent. "He trained Gregorovich, and is considered the best assassin they had. He was shot in a trade between SCORPIA and MI6. He was a good man, before he killed a taxi driver." I saw Snake notice my clenched fist. I noticed something else. Felix Lester, computer nerd, was acting completely bored, as if he'd heard this all before. Snake saw my confusion, and noticed the same thing. At least he wasn't wondering about why I was angry at the teacher anymore. The lesson continued on like this, showing past and present pictures of assassins, who I already knew, some I'd even talked to, and Felix kept on looking as if he'd heard it all before. There was one bit that Felix hadn't heard before, judging by the look on his face, and the information made me smirk.

"There have been rumours that a teenager was trained at Malagosto, but we have no information about that teenager, and no information past that rumour." Well, the first half was true, but the second... The teacher caught my smirk.

"Something funny, Cub?"

"Well, if the enemy are using teenagers, why aren't we? It's a good idea. I wouldn't expect a 15-year-old to be a spy. Would you?" He mulled it over, then finally said.

"I wouldn't want any 15-year-old to see what I have." Too late. And I've probably seen some worse things.

After the lesson, I waited for Felix, to try and get answers out of him.

"Hey Felix." I said, as he walked past.

"Hey."

"Was that as boring for you as it was for me?"

"Yeah. To be honest, I'd read most of it before..."

"Really? Where?"

"Well... I'm not supposed to tell..."

"I won't tell anyone, promise." Felix sighed.

"I may or may not have hacked MI6 by mistake." That was a surprise.

"By mistake? How do you hack an intelligence agency by mistake?"

"You don't realise that your local bank is actually one of their bases."

"Which bank?" If he managed to hack...

"Royal and General."

"How far did you get? That must have been hard!" God, I hope not too far.

"Only into their information section, before I got kicked out of the system. That's why most of that didn't surprise me. It's also why they're after me."

"They?"

"SCORPIA."

"Why, can't they hack MI6 themselves?"  
"Apparently not."

* * *

After I got back to the hut that evening, I was in for a shock.

"Ben!"

"Alex! What are you doing here? I was told you were on an undercover mission."  
"I am. Fortunately, both MI5 and 6 believe in sending minors to SAS camps. And using them as spies."

"MI5 have teenage spies?" Ben was shocked by this.

"Fox!" Eagle yelled, right by my ear. I winced. "You didn't tell us you were coming back today!"

"I only found out at lunch. I thought I'd surprise you for once."

"Hey, how do you know Cub?" Eagle asked.

"We went on a mission together... Did you not tell them?"  
"I did." I replied. "I just didn't tell them that you were the MI6 agent I worked with."  
"So now I'm just 'the agent'?"  
"Sounds about right." Wolf had been listening to the conversation.  
"Wait. You met Cub, and didn't think to tell us that he was a spy?" Ben glanced at me.  
"It's his secret to reveal." He said simply. Wolf just rolled his eyes.

"So Point Blanc wasn't a one-time thing?"

"Nope. Why, didn't you believe me at CHERUB?"

"You hardly told us anything!"  
"How long are you staying?" Jackdaw asked, quickly changing the subject.  
"For almost a month. I have some recovery time, and I'm due some training, so I thought why not combine the two?"  
"So we're going to have six in this unit for a month?" Eagle said. "There's only five beds in here though..." Ben laughed.  
"That's ok. I'll just use yours."  
"Coo... Hey! I need somewhere to sleep too!"  
"Not my problem." I tuned out here, and started to read a book I had bought with me. It was called An Imperial Affliction. It was left on the side in my CHERUB room. It was one of three books I had.  
"Hey Alex" I heard Ben call.  
"Hmm?" I said looking up from the book. K Unit had left. For tea I was guessing.  
"Want to go swap stories at some point? It's teatime now."  
"Sure."

* * *

At tea, Snake was giving me an odd look. When I asked him what was on his mind he said  
"You're a Rider?" I nodded. I heard him mutter "Well that explains a lot"  
"What do you mean?"  
"All MI6 agents train at an SAS camp. Before you, the top two times on the unofficial MI6 assault course leader-board were held by a Jaguar, who was John Rider, and a Bear, who was his brother Ian. Their quickest was nine minutes." I smiled. Snake looked confused.  
"Ian was always competitive. If he were alive, he'd go round and round that thing until he beat me..."

After tea, I followed Ben out into the forest. He lead me to a tree and started climbing.  
"So it's not just me" I murmured.  
"What was that?" Ben called down.  
"You'll find out after you tell me your story."  
It took about four hours to tell both our stories. Ben had broken his arm, falling out of a tree no less, and had only just got the cast off. I explained how I fell out of a tree at K Unit repeatedly. When I told Ben about CHERUB, he looked like he could go and kill someone. Probably Blunt.

"Hey. The surprising bit of this story is that Blunt didn't know about them."  
"Seriously?"

"Yep. And I haven't been shot at, threatened with torture or defeated a bad guy in... almost 5 months now."

"That's a long time for you?" Ben asked. I nodded. Ben just shook his head. "We should get going... I suppose we'll have to call each other by our code names now, eh Cub?"

"That's my last name, for CHERUB. To them, I'm Alex Cub." Ben laughed.

"Is that how K Unit found you then?"

"Yep. They probably wouldn't have noticed otherwise."


	6. Chapter 6

At then end of the month, after I'd managed to get my best time on the assault course down to six minutes, out-shot all the recruits, taken on more units – alone – in paint-ball and won, pranked many other units with Eagle, Ben and Tom's help, become closer friends with the other teenagers, and kept my cover as a spy squared. I was shocked at how quickly the time had gone, and almost sad to leave. Almost. But, alas, it was time for me to go back to CHERUB. The ride back took about 6 hours. Fortunately, Crawley wasn't driving me. An unnamed MI5 agent was. I got a location for the campus this time, and texted Smithers it. I got joke back. I smiled.

"What you smiling at, kid?" The driver asked.

"My friend said something funny." I stated.

"Care to elaborate?"  
"Inside joke." That was the first and last thing said for the entire car journey.

When I got back to the camp, and had dumped my stuff in my room, it was time for tea. I walked to the canteen, and got some food. God, I'd almost forgotten what real food looked like after a month of slop. I sat next to James. He didn't notice me, and anyone that did, I put my finger to my lips. James was getting to the end of his story.

"And that's when... Jesus CHRIST Alex! WHEN DID YOU GET BACK?" He yelled.

"What do you mean? I've been here the entire time."  
"What? No, you were on a mission or something?"  
"I haven't been on any missions yet." For CHERUB, anyway.

"Where were you this past month?"  
"Here. Dude, I beat your ass at football last week. I know that's traumatic for you and everything, but you don't have to block me out of your memory. Some people might find it offensive." Kerry leant over and felt his forehead.

"He hasn't got a fever or anything. I wonder what's up with him?"

"Could be when he tripped over the ball earlier. He was out cold for a bit, wasn't he?" Someone added.

"Yeah, he missed your amazing winning goal Alex."

"Man that was cool."

"Where did you learn how to do that anyway?"

"It went straight in!" Everyone was talking now, confusing the hell out of James. He turned to me.

"I think I need to go to the doctors." Lauren stood up, and held out her arm.

"Come on dear brother. Lets get you out of here." After they'd left, everyone burst out laughing.

"So when did you get back?"  
"About half an hour ago. I came straight to lunch."  
"It took him that long to notice?" Scattered laughter.

"Where did you go?" A voice I recognised as Rat's asked.

"SAS camp."  
"Seriously? That's so cool! How did you end up there?"  
"I was sent there in the first place."

"What? Why?"

"I have no idea."

"Huh. Cool. So what was it like?" I spent the rest of lunch telling them all about the SAS camp.

* * *

After lunch, I had espionage, as it was a Tuesday. We had a lecture from an MI6 agent about different terrorist groups. I was expecting MI6 to send Ben, as MI6 were intent on sending anyone I knew. And I was right. However Ben acted as if he didn't know me, so that was alright. In fact, there was a something a bit ...off. My gut instinct was that this man wasn't Ben. He looked like him, but... there. Ben never did that hand movement. Or would describe that using those words. In fact, I wasn't even sure if he was from MI6. He definitely didn't have enough correct information on SCORPIA for him to be MI6. At least he did his research and got a proper agent's name. Or maybe it was a happy accident. I decided to wait till the end of the lesson to confront him. I walked up to him while he was sorting out his notes.

"Sir?" I asked

"Yes... What was your name again?"  
"Alex Cub. I have a question."  
"Ask away."  
"Why would an MI6 agent know about this top secret organisation that only the top members of MI5 know about? Does MI6 even know CHERUB exists?" The man laughed.

"You know, after god knows how many years taking this class, no-one has ever asked me that. And you're right. How long ago did you come to CHERUB?"

"About... 5 and a half months ago." His face was the perfect mask of shock.  
"5 and a half months?"

"3 and a bit for basic training, a month of lessons and a month-long stay at an SAS camp."

"Why were you at an SAS camp?"  
"I was told to be."

"If I told you to jump off a cliff would you?"  
"Depends on the conditions."  
"What?"  
"Well, if I were being shot at and the tide were in, and it were pretty likely that I wouldn't die, then yeah I'd jump. But I wouldn't jump off a 20 metre tall cliff without a parachute or abseiling equipment for fun." The man just looked incredulous.

"What if you were being shot at? Would you?"  
"I'd try not to! Anyway don't you have a lesson now?"  
"Yep. Though I can say I was talking to you."

"True." He said, with a laugh.

* * *

The next few months passed quickly without much happening. I finished Hindu, and started Chinese. Corinne went, and then came back from a mission. It was just befriending someone, and hoping they accidentally gave away information. Apparently it went very successfully. I finally told James that I had been to an SAS camp. I only waited about a month, month and a half tops. He was very pissed for about a day or two. He didn't talk to me and just blanked me. I just ignored him in return. He obviously didn't like that, and it was quite funny to see how pissed off I could get him. The answer is extremely. He even resorted to challenging me to a fight in the dojo at the end of the two days. Safe to say, I pummelled him into the ground. Repeatedly. Almost 8 months after I'd joined CHERUB, I got my first mission. For MI6 that would have been saving the world... what, 6 or 7 times? I wasn't complaining or anything. It was nice not risking my life for the country constantly. I went to the mission preparation area. I scanned myself in and went up to the top floor. I walked into the room to my left. In there was Corinne, James, Kerry, Zara, Lauren, Rat and John. It looked like I was the last to arrive. I stood at the back of the room, beside a potted plant. Zara started talking.

"This mission isn't a normal CHERUB one. You will still have to integrate yourself into school, but you do not need to make specific friends. The school itself is the main target. It is being targeted by a criminal organisation known as SCORPIA." My head snapped up. I thought CHERUBS didn't do dangerous missions! The others seemed to have not heard of SCORPIA before. Zara carried on. "Although you may not have heard of them, SCORPIA are very dangerous. They have lost some of their reputation by being defeated by the same MI6 agent three times in a row, but they are still as deadly as they were before."  
"Deadly?" John asked  
"SCORPIA stands for Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence and Assassination. They were extremely successful until they met the MI6 agent."  
"Does the MI6 agent have a name?" I asked. I knew it. I wanted to know if anyone else did.

"He's just referred to as the agent in the reports we have." Ben would love that - me being 'the agent'. Zara had got out some folders that looked like mission statements. "These have all the information you will need for the mission." We each got separate folders. I opened mine up.

* * *

*** MISSION STATEMENT ***  
THIS IS FOR THE EYES OF JAMES ADAMS, LAUREN ADAMS, KERRY CHANG, CORINNE POLITIK, GREG RATHBONE, JOHN SCHOTT, ALEX CUB AND AGENT BEN DANIELS.

SCORPIA, an international terrorist organisation have threatened a boarding school in Norfolk. The school in question, Wymondham College, is home to no known potential targets of SCORPIA.

Mission - infiltrate school, watch out for suspicious people, protect students if in danger, KEEP YOUR COVER UNLESS YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE.

Story – you're foster children from different places, though James and Lauren are siblings. You will all be registered under a last name of your choosing.

This mission is ranked at 'we really shouldn't let you do this. In fact it goes against every bone in my body but this really needs to be sorted out and MI6 won't touch it for some reason and you're really the only one who can do this'. CHERUBS are warned that this mission involves a terrorist organisation that train assassins, and encourage torture to get information. If you even suspect someone of being involved with SCORPIA, tell your handler immediately.

* * *

"Ben Daniels?" I asked "The real one or the one you get to do the terrorist talk?" Zara looked shocked.

"What?" She asked. I repeated my question  
"How did you work it out? When did you work it out?"  
"Well, I didn't see why an MI6 agent should know about a group of children who don't exist just to tell them about terrorism. And about 10 minutes into the lesson" Also I may or may not have met him numerous times before. Zara looked impressed.  
"I see why everyone says you'll be good."  
"What, for using common sense?"  
"These lot didn't realise"  
"To be honest, James and Rat aren't the best examples to use."  
"Hey!" James glanced up from his folder. "So we're working with an MI6 agent?"  
"Yes. He will be your mission controller."  
"Why not one of you?" Kerry asked.  
"If necessary, he will be able to get you out of any predicament you might get into. He'll also have the help of an SAS unit if needs be." Whooo. More K Unit.

After all questions had been answered, we were lead to the main building to meet 'Agent Daniels'. I stood at the back of the group trying not to be noticed. Fortunately, Ben didn't have much of a chance to get to know us as we had to pack and leave pretty quickly. When I checked my phone from Smithers, I found a message.

_You know Ben's name & face from SAS camp. He'll report for you as well. Have fun. Smithers._

Well that was a relief. Now to just worry about how long before SCORPIA come and capture us...

Ben was waiting with K Unit in a minibus outside. We needed it. There were 5 adults and 7 children. As soon as we were all settled down, I pulled out a pack of cards.  
"Anyone want a game of anything?"

* * *

Three hours later, after winning K Unit's money off them (twice) we arrived at the house. There were five bedrooms. The SAS and Ben got the largest room, leaving two to a room for the rest of us. I ended up with Rat, James with John, Kerry and Lauren, and Corinne went in the smallest room.  
"Just like at home." She muttered.

The next morning was hectic. I had been up, talking to Ben and K Unit for about half an hour, dressed and ready to go, and telling Ben about his doppelgänger, when the other boys crashed down the stairs. The girls walked behind them. They were ready to go, smartly dressed. I almost laughed at how dishevelled Rat looked.  
"Come on" I said. "School's only down the road."

* * *

The school itself was quite large, with a swimming pool, music rooms and accommodation spread out everywhere. The uniforms was a sore point for Rat, as he'd never had to wear one before.

"How do you survive in these things?" He complained loudly on the way to reception.

"Were you home-schooled before this?" I asked him.

"Nope. Lived in a religious cult in Australia till I was picked up by James." I just looked at him.

"Which religion?"

"Christianity."

"What cult?"  
"The Survivors."

"The one attacked by the ASIS?" I'd heard someone mention some thing about it at the ASIS camp.

"Yeah. Hey, how'd you know?"

"Uh... Internet?"

"Cool." We arrived at the receptionist's desk at this point.

"Hello" she said. "How may I help you?"

"We're new here." Kerry said.

"Can I have your names?"

"James Coates."

"Lauren Coates. I'm his sister."

"Corinne Strider."

"Kerry Oppel."

"Greg Muchamore

"John Horowitz."

"Alex Rider."

"...Thank you. Here are your timetables and a map." She handed us two pieces of paper each, then turned back to her work. The first bell rang, and people started walking everywhere. I followed my map to my form room. I shared it with Rat. We didn't get too lost... we were only 5 minutes late. The teacher introduced herself as Mrs Warnes. There were two seats, on different tables, one full of girls, the other full of boys. I sat on the table nearest the window, and left Rat to the girls table. He rolled his eyes, and dragged the chair over to the boys table.

"So, who are you then?" One of the boys asked. He was tall, and ginger.

"I'm Alex Rider. Who are you?"

"I'm Josh Butcher. Who's your friend?"  
"Greg, but everyone calls him Rat."  
"Rat? Why Rat?"

"To be honest, I have no idea." Josh laughed.

"Cool. What've you got first?" I pulled out my timetable.

"Maths, with Mr France."

"So do I! You can come with me for that."

"Thanks. So, what's he like?" I glanced over at Rat, who was staring at me. _What? _I mouthed. He just gave me a look that said 'I'll tell you later". I rolled my eyes at him, and turned my attention back to Josh.

Maths passed quickly. I was sat next to James, who finished the work ridiculously quickly and kept complaining about his form tutor, Mrs Robinson. Apparently, she was wide and ginger. I tuned him out for the most part, except when he was correcting my work. Break came as a relief. I was glad CHERUB had such good teachers – I wouldn't have been able to keep up if this were an MI6 job. Admittedly, I probably wouldn't be sitting in a school room.

In break I got to meet some of Josh's friends. There was Andrew Grant, a dark brown haired boy with a few spots; Abby Spaans, a girl who seemed permanently hyper; Gabby Booth, a girl obsessed with zombies; Ash Chilvers, just known as Chillie, Ruth Dirnt (no relation) and Toby Gibson, who was ever so slightly camp. It was a rather large, yet exclusive group. At the end of break, Rat caught up with me.  
"I've never seen anyone make a friend so fast! How'd you do it?"  
"Magic." I smirked at the look on Rats face. "No, you just have to be devilishly handsome and completely charismatic, like me. Have fun in your lesson!" I had my next lesson with Ruth, so I followed her to Biology.

* * *

After everyone got home from school, Ben made us talk about our days. Rat jumped in first, telling them how I made a friend right after sitting down. The CHERUBS looked impressed, Ben rolled his eyes and Jackdaw (the only member of K Unit present) raised an eyebrow. Rat continued with his day. I tuned then all out. Eventually, Ben turned to me.  
"So, Alex, how did your day go?"  
"I made friends, then hung out with them. Not much more than that."

"Notice anything suspicious?" I shook my head.

"Not yet. How was your day?"

"Fun. Shopping for 14 isn't easy!" I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have homework?" Ben asked. Rat jumped up, swore quite colourfully then ran to his bag. Ben raised his eyebrow. "I'll take that as a yes then."  
"Hey, where's K Unit?" John asked.

"Um... I don't actually know." Ben answered.

"You lost K Unit?" James asked.

"Well, they probably know where they are..." At this point Ben's phone rang. He swiftly picked it up, then moved it away from his ear again. I bet even Rat could hear Wolf's shouting coming from the phone. Ben sighed as the phone cut off.

"I think you found them." John said.

"Yeah... Don't burn down the house or anything, I'm going to pick them up." When they got back, Wolf seemed to have calmed down, but was still pretty red in the face.


	7. Chapter 7

The next few weeks carried on like that – with no-one finding anything. However, one Friday, someone turned up.

"Hey! Dave! Where have you been?" Josh gestured towards me "This is Alex Rider, he joined just after you left. Alex, this is Dave Goldner, who disappears for a while with an 'illness' every now and again. Don't believe the rumours about him, they're wrong." I could see the quotations around the illness, and did Josh know something about Dave's 'illnesses'?

"You must have a dodgy immune system, huh?" I asked Dave. He raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. It's really unfortunate. I don't get to do PE or go on any school trips anymore..." Dave had an American accent, and it was really noticeable in a school full of English children.

"Sucks to be you then?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I was the first to arrive back at the house, and I immediately told Ben about Dave and his 'illness'.

"Unimaginative intelligence agencies..."

"He sounded American, if that's any help as well. Can I borrow the laptop?"

"Yeah, sure." I opened it up, and went onto the school's website. Ben walked out the room.

"What are you doing?" Corinne asked, walking towards the kettle, and making herself a cup of tea. "Want a cup?" she asked.

"Thanks. I'm hacking the school."  
"What? Why?"  
"Information."

"On...?"  
"Dave Goldner."

"Who?"  
"Guy who's been 'ill' for the past few weeks. I think Josh know what he's been up to." Corinne placed my tea next to me.

"Thanks." She walked out the room with her cup. About a minute later I was in. I found Dave's file.

* * *

Name: Dave Goldner

Form: 10SWa

Address: 7 Bond Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR8 4RT

Attendance: 42% - Has been off sick a large amount over the past 18 months.

WAG: English – E, Maths – D, French – B, Spanish – A, German – B, PE – cannot take part, Physics – D, Chemistry – C, Biology – B, ICT – B, Geography – D.

Dave has been off quite a lot in his first year and a half at this school, which has seriously impeded his learning. It is thankful that before moving over here from America he learnt French, Spanish and German and can speak them almost fluently.

* * *

I closed the computer. A year and a half ago... about the time I went to Skeleton Key and... No, they couldn't have. Would they?

"Where's Ben?" I asked Lauren who'd just walked in.

"He's gone up to the school. James' in trouble again." She rolled her eyes. I grabbed my coat, and ran out the door.

"Hey! Where're you going?" she called, but I was too far away to answer.

I found Ben walking down the road, talking with James.

"I know who SCORPIA are targeting." I panted at them.

"Who?" James asked

"Why?" Ben asked.

"Dave Goldner. I think he's CIA."

"What? The CIA have a child spy?" James exclaimed. Ben shushed him.

"Wait till we're inside at least."

Back in the living room, with everyone assembled I explained who Dave was, and why I thought he was CIA. Well, except for the bit about Skeleton Key. But I said something about suspicious goings on over there, which I'd heard on the news.

"I haven't had a chance to try and get into the CIA's database, but I think he's going to be there somewhere." There was silence for a second or two, then

"You're going to hack the CIA?" John asked.

"Well, try to at least." John snorted sceptically. I took the laptop I'd used earlier.

"Is there a room where I won't be disturbed for the next 10 hours or so?"

"There's the conservatory. Or the dining room."  
"I'll use the conservatory, thanks."

* * *

It took me 5 hours to get to where I wanted. I had noted down Byrne's email address earlier, in case I couldn't get what I needed. I found the list of agents, and scrolled down to the g's. Dave Goldner. I knew it. I printed off all the information they had. I relaxed for a second. Then something caught my eye.

"Shit!" I swore loudly. I looked at the clock. 11pm. I ran into the living room, to see who else but Dave Goldner standing at the printer, reading his file. I stood in the doorway, and stared at him. He looked up, shocked and said

"You're supposed to be asleep."  
"You know, you're not the first one to say that." He looked confused for a second, then decided to ignore it.

"Who sent you these?" He asked, shaking his file.

"Who would send me them?" I replied.

"You're saying you hacked into the CIA in six hours?"  
"Five, actually." He snorted.

"Impossible."  
"That's what SCORPIA would have said a year ago if you told them a teenager would cause them so much to fail three of their operations, and become a laughing stock." Dave growled.

"Don't mention it. They don't like being reminded."  
"I guessed." There was silence for a second.

"Why aren't you asleep?"  
"Hacking CIA." Dave looked shocked.

"But you were at school earlier... It takes even the best hacker about a day to even get into the lowest level security..."  
"I guess they don't have my training. How long did you spend at Malagasto if you think it takes a day to get in anywhere?"

"Malagasto? Where's that?" This surprised me. How does a member of SCORPIA not know it's own base?  
"Spain." I decided to lie, as blatantly as possible. Well, he didn't recognise my name... I think any member of SCORPIA would at least have heard it once. Probably as an insult. "I thought everyone in SCORPIA knew that?"  
"Well..."  
"Why is no-one ever actually in SCORPIA any more?" I muttered. Dave just looked confused.  
"In the past eight months I've met more people pretending to be SCORPIA than actual SCORPIA members."  
"How do you know they were pretending?"  
"There's a number of reasons, all of which you'd freak out about."  
"Try me."  
"They wouldn't torture a child, they didn't shoot me as soon as they found out my name, they didn't even recognise my name, they got their information horribly wrong, they underestimated me instead of overestimating..." Dave's face had gone horribly white. "I told you. You know what the best part of this is?" Dave shook his pale head. "I get to use their line."  
"What's so great about it?" Dave asked. I leant over and whispered in his ear.  
"SCORPIA never forgive. SCORPIA never forget." Dave fainted at this. Ben walked down the stairs at this point, stopping complaining about his headache when he saw the fainted Dave. Ben sighed.  
"What did you do?" He sounded so resigned. I put my hands up in a mock surrender.  
"I didn't touch him! I only talked to him! Yes he is CIA by the way, but not SCORPIA. Probably ex-CIA soon. It took me five hours to get incorrect information!" Ben looked bemused.  
"Five hours? Only five?"  
"Yeah... I need to email Byrne, to apologise for the hacking too... And tell him to update his information... And improve his firewalls. Though I suppose it'd make some people suspicious if Centurion International Advertisements had better security than the Pentagon..." I said, opening up Gmail. The email went something like

* * *

To: jbyrne .us  
From: alexrider .uk  
Subject: Sorry  
I'm sorry about hacking you, but I needed info on Dave Goldner, who isn't with SCORPIA as you claim. By the way, it took me five hours to get this out of date information. You really need to sort out your firewalls. And update your information.

Alex Rider

P.S. Dave fainted at the mention of SCORPIA. Get some better agents while you're at it will you?

P.P.S. What do you want us to do with him?

P.P.P.S. I know a child spy is a good idea and all, but it's your fault that I figured it out so quickly. If you'd waited even a month or two, this wouldn't have happened. Well, it wouldn't have happened as quickly. You'd still probably be getting a hacking email, just in about a week or two.

* * *

It was about midnight when I pressed send. Ben had been sorting out what to do with Dave. MI5 and 6 wouldn't touch him with a barge pole, as he was CIA. I got an email back from Byrne about half an hour later.

* * *

To: alexrider .uk  
From: jbyrne .us  
Subject: RE:Sorry  
**FIVE HOURS**. Jesus Christ, I know you're good, but... Please, email me next time. Anyway, thanks for the update on Dave, and take him home when he wakes up, if you haven't completely terrified him yet. Get someone else to if you have. And if he contacts me saying you're a member of SCORPIA, I'm leaving you to sort it out. And I know he's not as good as you, just please, _don't_ break him. He's very useful.

* * *

I turned to Ben.

"Byrne says we just have to take him home when he wakes up. And we can't break him" Ben sighed.

"I'll get him a blanket then."

The next morning, everyone was woken up by a yell from downstairs. Rat jumping out of bed, then tripping over his duvet which was still wrapped around his legs was one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while. Rat glared at me when I chuckled.

"Who's downstairs?" he asked quietly.

"Dave Goldner, and probably Ben or K Unit." I replied.

"The possible CIA agent?"  
"He is CIA. Though for some reason, he wants to be SCORPIA." We started walking downstairs.  
"Is he?"  
"No."

"How do you know?" I wiggled my fingers.

"What was I doing yesterday? It's surprisingly easy once you know what you're doing." We'd arrived downstairs, ad everyone was just acting as if it were a normal morning, even going as far to include Dave in the routine. He looked sufficiently bemused. Then he saw me. His face darkened and he looked like he was going to throw himself at me. I smiled at him. Ben came over to me and said "It'd be nice if you gave us some warning about having a friend over."

"Sorry. Hey, Dave. Are you feeling better?"

"What?" He looked very confused.

"Don't you remember? You knocked on my door last night, muttering about scorpions or Scorpio or something, then collapsed." Everyone else looked surprised. Kerry walked over and put a hand to his forehead.

"He's not got a temperature. Alex, why didn't you take him to a hospital or something?"  
"I'm 15. It's not exactly legal for me to drive yet. Plus, Ben's hidden the keys after last time."

"LAST time?" Dave exclaimed.

"Don't worry, no-one was seriously injured..."  
"Just a couple of broken bones, right Alex?" Rat said, with a laugh.

"You had a cast on for three weeks. It wasn't even your right arm!"

"That's the problem!"

"I could break it for you now if you wanted..."

"No-one is going to be breaking anyone's bones." Snake said, walking through from the living room. "Who's this?"  
"Dave Goldner."

"You know the rules about bringing friends over."  
"Yeah, but he came over last night, muttered about scorpions and collapsed." Snake rushed over, and felt his forehead, like Kerry had.

"Hmm... He feels fine. Do you remember what you did yesterday after school?"

"I came home from school, talked to Tamara, did some homework, and..." Dave frowned, and seemed to be mulling something over. "Can I talk to Alex for a minute? Alone?" Ben nodded.

"You can use the conservatory."

Dave sat in a chair, and I sat opposite him.

"I have something I need to tell you." I waited for him to continue. "I... workfortheCIA."  
"What?" He was freely admitting that?

"I work for the CIA. As a spy."  
"Is that why you've been absent?" He nodded.

"Only Josh knows about this. And that's because he saw me in action."

"Any reason for you telling me this? You turned up at my door talking about scorpions. That's not you in action is it?" Dave laughed.

"God, no. It's because I was probably muttering about SCORPIA."  
"What's that?"

"A terrorist organisation."  
"Never heard of them."  
"You're lucky. They're the most dangerous organisation anyone could have the fortune to meet, even after the recent events."  
"Recent events?"

"Their plans got foiled by the same MI6 agent. He even survived one of their snipers."

"SCORPIA have snipers?" I was trying really hard here.  
"They train assassins." I looked shocked for his benefit.

"Shit." I said quietly.

"Exactly. And now they've targeted our school."  
"They have?" I jumped out my seat, and started pacing, acting nervous. "Why?"

"Probably because they want me..."  
"Because you're a spy? Why are you a spy anyway? Have you done any 007-esque stuff?"

"I'm a spy because I hacked the Pentagon, then evaded authority for about a month."

"You hacked the Pentagon? Why?"  
"For fun."

"Why? And how long did you take?"

"To see how good I was. And a few days."

"How did you not get caught for a month?"

"I was 14. How could a fourteen-year-old hack the Pentagon?"

"Have you done any missions?"  
"Only two." Ha. I win. 10, including this one.

"What have you done?"

"Uh... stopped the assassination of the American Secretary of State in Cairo" No, you didn't. That was me. I shot Julius after... I focused back on Dave. "... I managed to infiltrate SCORPIA for a while. Then they found out I was a spy..." You didn't do your job very well. You don't even know where Malagasto is!

"Oh. Where did Josh see you in action?"

"When I stopped the assassination. He came and found me, because I'd spent half an hour 'on the loo'."

"What did he see?"

"He saw me fight a blonde guy in a blue shirt. The guy I fought was found dead later. A bullet straight through his head." He fought Julius? Bull. Complete and utter B.S. Julius didn't have a mark on him. His shirt wasn't even ruffled. I suppose if Julius kicked his ass without being hit too bad himself... That sounded plausible.

"You any good at fighting?"

"Yeah. I can do karate." So can lots of other people.

"Come on. Snake's probably worried about you." We got up, and turned towards the door to the kitchen.  
"Snake?"  
"The guy who was taking your temperature earlier. He's a medic with the army or something. A friend of Ben's."

"Why Snake? Is he a SEAL or SAS or something." I shrugged.

"Could just be a nickname."

"How does Ben know him?"  
"No idea."

"What does Ben do?"  
"Works for a bank." We were back in a kitchen. Snake was waiting for us.

"Everything OK?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. I'd probably better get back to Tamara though. She's probably worried."  
"Where do you live?" I asked.

"Down the road."  
"Snake'll want someone to walk you back. I'll do it."

We walked down the road. 5 houses later, Dave turned onto a path up to a house.

"How did you find out where I live?"  
"I hacked the Pentagon. The school's not that hard." Dave rang the doorbell. The door opened. I saw a blur of brown hair, and heard a very loud "DAVE. WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT GOING OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!" Then Dave was being pulled very quickly inside. "I thought you'd been caught by-" Dave interrupted her before she could finish the sentence.

"Tamara, this is Alex Rider. He's a friend." He said quickly. Fortunately, Dave missed the surprise that flashed across Tamara's face, and the finger that I'd had to my lips, silently asking her not to give anything away.

"Alex! Nice to meet you. I hope you had nothing to do with him disappearing in the middle of the night."  
"Well... I sort of borrowed something of his, and he had to come get it, then he stayed and met everyone else at my house. It was late, and he looked tired, so we offered him the sofa for the night." Tamara turned to Dave.

"You could have told me, at least."  
"I didn't plan to stay long."

"You have a phone."  
"Well..."  
"He borrowed your phone."  
"Kinda..." It seemed they'd forgotten about me, so I slipped quietly out the door.

* * *

Back at the house, there seemed to be some sort of argument going on. John and James were shouting at each other, from opposite side of the room.

"She's my sister for Christ's sakes. At least wait till I'm not there!" James yelled. They started edging together, yelling insults as they went. I stepped in the middle, my hands raised.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked.

"I'm about to beat this punk up." James snarled.

"He's just jealous, 'cause he's not getting anything from Kerry." James growled, and tightened his fists.

"Hey. No fighting or I will kick both your asses simultaneously into a different calendar, probably one with horses, if you don't stop this."

"He started it!" they both yelled simultaneously.

"I don't care. I'm stopping it." They both sighed and turned around, as if they were walking away. I wasn't' fooled. I stepped back, place my hands on the back of the sofa, pushed myself up, flicked both my legs out, and winced at the thumps of two unconscious bodies falling on the ground. Ben walked in.

"You got them to stop fight-oh. Why am I not surprised? I should be worried. I should be shocked. I'm not. Why am I not shocked? That's a bad sign. You're sorting this out, by the way." He turned around and walked back into the kitchen. I heard someone ask whether I had sorted it out, and Ben replied that they were unconscious. I sighed, and dragged John up to his room. I left James on the sofa, because I didn't want them in the same room. And because James was a lot heavier. I walked into the kitchen. Lauren was standing there, so I asked her what happened.

"John and I were sitting in the living room... John tried to kiss me as James walked through, and it went downhill from there. They're both out cold?"

"Yeah. Your brother's on the sofa, and John's in his room."  
"Don't they share?"  
"...Crap." Fortunately, John was still out, so Lauren managed to move all his things into her room. I collapsed on a chair in the living room. A cup of tea was held in front of me. I looked up to see Ben was the one holding it.

"Thanks." I said.

"Everything OK? Dave get home all right?"

"Yeah. He's staying with a woman called Tamara Knight." Ben just raised an eyebrow.  
"Well this is all getting very interesting now isn't it?"

* * *

Dave disappeared a few weeks later, to turn up a month after that with a cast on his leg. The rumours kept flying about. The most common one was that he was in a gang. He was lucky he wasn't a druggie. Josh and I got told the story at different times, Josh at lunch, me on the way home. I think Josh got a more detailed version. The official story was that he had flu, then after he got better he fell down some stairs and broke his leg. What actually happened was that MI6 had found out about him (Blame Ben, not me. I hadn't texted Smithers in a while actually...), and wanted him to gather some information. They told him it was easy. I winced internally when I heard this, as whenever they told me that, I ended up getting shot at, or burnt, or threatened with torture. One time I got an evil twin/clone/look-alike out of it! The people Dave was investigating found out about him, but he was confused at the amount of people who said 'You're the spy?', as if they were expecting someone else... I hoped it wasn't me. Dave also noticed the amount of gadgets that would be suitable for a child Smithers had, and how Blunt was surprised at how quickly he agreed. Now that I did almost laugh at. I wonder what Blunt would have blackmailed him with. He didn't say who he was infiltrating, though I think he did tell Josh. I decided to text Smithers to see how he was doing when I got to my room. I pulled out my phone and texted him

_have fun with dave? _I got a reply almost immediately.

_He's not as good as you. Definitely didn't do his first mission very well, I think. _I laughed at that.

_so who was he investigating?_

_Help Earth. MI5 always get those ones as they're not as bad as SCORPIA. You should ask your CHERUB buddies about them. Dave didn't do that well. Lasted about 3 weeks, before being found out. Broke his leg in an escape. Blunt wants you back._

_i almost want to be back..._I deleted that, then typed _well ive got ben with us at the moment, so im not expecting to go back to mi5 after this. though i would like to. i actually might pass my gcses now!_

A few days later, SCORPIA finally attacked. A pair of assassins that I recognised from my time at Malagasto walked in with guns.  
"Everyone, hands in the air, and against the wall." Everyone, but Dave , rushed to the wall.

"You! Hurry up!"  
"Sorry, my crutch is caught. Josh, can I have some help?" Josh walked over, and they started whispering to each other. I heard snippets, like "...right or left?...cast...real? I thought..." They weren't very good at it, but the SCORPIA agents obviously didn't hear a thing. Rat had edged over.

"What're we going to do?" Rat could whisper. That was a relief.

"Nothing. Not yet anyway. Text Ben will you?" I said out the corner of my mouth. I stood between Rat and the two agents who looked rather bored at the moment. Rat finished texting as Josh and Dave arrived at the wall.

"What took you so long?" I whispered to them both. Dave glanced at Josh, and Josh nodded his head slightly. Josh leant nearer to my ear.

"I'm ASIS. You know about Dave, right?" I nodded. Hell, were all the people I worked with employing children now?

"When did you start?" I asked.

"A few weeks after Ark Angel fell out the sky." Was I a catalyst for these things? Was it going to be standard for every intelligence agency to have a child working for them? My thoughts were interrupted by one of the assassins telling us to get to the hall as quickly as we could. The whole school was in there, milling around waiting for something to happen. Assassins were at every door, and I think I saw a sniper on the roof. It wouldn't surprise me if there was. I managed to steal a gun from one of the assassins holsters. (What type is it?) I walked towards Josh and Dave.

"If I were to magically get a gun, would you be able to use it?"

"Not with crutches." Josh just shook his head.

"You're both spies, and neither of you can shoot?" Well, at least MI6 weren't the only ones who thought that a teenager shouldn't be able to shoot.

"Well, I can. I just won't hit anything." Josh said. Dave nodded in agreement. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm so glad I can then." I muttered quietly, as someone had just walked past us.

"How?" Dave asked.

"I was in a gang." Josh rolled his eyes. "What? At least I can shoot."

"Where are you going to get a gun from?" Josh asked. I searched for the assassin I stole the gun from.

"Him."

"He doesn't have a gun."  
"Exactly." Dave's reply was cut off by someone walking onto the stage. Everyone quietened down.

"My name is Akoyn. I am a member of SCORPIA, and I am here to tell you about how some of your classmates have ...gotten in our way recently." Well, I haven't recently, but I know that SCORPIA can hold a grudge...

"Who's SCORPIA?" someone yelled.

"That's a very good question. SCORPIA is a terrorist organisation." Mutterings broke out everywhere.

"Why are school kids messing with a terrorist organisation?" I think it was James that yelled this time. I found him with the other CHERUBS, at the very back of the hall. I nudged Dave and Josh towards them. We all stood in a group, waiting for Akoyn to carry on. Kerry looked at my pocket and whispered

"Where'd you get the gun."

"Where'd you think? Haven't you got one?"

"You stole it?"

"Borrowed. Without asking. Or intention of retuning. You want one?"

"No. Can't hit a target to save my life." The rest looked as equally nervous around the gun.

"Am I really the only one who can shoot here?"

"Well, these guys probably can." James said, nodding towards the assassins.

"Oh, look. You cracked a funny." John said sarcastically.

"You remember what happened last time you argued? Well it won't be Alex knocking you out, it'll be me. And I'll make it _hurt_" Lauren hissed. John and Dave looked scared at that threat.

"Is she normally that violent?" Dave asked.

"No, she's worse." James deadpanned. I glanced up at Akoyn and pulled the trigger of the gun twice.


	8. Chapter 8

Panic ensued. People were screaming. Every spy turned to me and just stared.

"What? They're not dead. I just shot them in the knee and elbow. They shouldn't die just yet."

"Why at that point though?" Josh asked.

"They were about to name the culprit. I thought they'd appreciate the anonymity."

"How'd you know?" Dave asked.  
"I was paying attention, unlike you it seems."

"Not that, how do you know where you shot them?"

"Because that's where I aimed."

"You didn't aim! You just raised the gun, and shot!"

"And I hit my target." At this point, the police arrived, with a number of SAS units. The SCORPIA assassin from the roof took a couple of people out, before they got shot themselves. The SCOPRPIA agents seemed shocked that the police got here as quickly as they did, but quickly recovered, and started shooting at them. Everyone in the hall was in some stage of shock, except for us.

"We should take out some of the SCORPIA assassins." I whispered.

"How? They have guns!" John said, almost hysterical. James placed a hand on his shoulder.

"This is tough, but CHERUBs are tougher." He sounded as if he were quoting something.

"Cherubs?" Dave and Josh asked. James looked up and swore.

"Uh..." I rolled my eyes, and turned to Josh and Dave.

"MI5 agents." I told them "Been going since WWII. Very successful. Don't tell anyone, as we'll just deny it." They just looked stunned.

"MI5 have a department for child spies?"

"Yep."

"And it's been going since WWII?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"And... you're all members."  
"Give the man a cookie." I was getting impatient at this point "Are we going to get rid of these assassins or not?"

* * *

10 minutes later, the shooting had stopped, and we were giving formal introductions of everyone.

"Dave Goldner. CIA."

"Josh Butcher. ASIS."

"James Adams."

"Lauren Adams. I'm his sister."

"Corinne Politik."

"Kerry Chang."

"Greg Rathbone."

"John Morris."

"Alex Cub. We're all CHERUB, part of MI5."

"Ben Daniels, ex-SAS, now MI6."

"Zara Asker, CHERUB official." Everyone turned round.

"Alan Blunt, Head of MI6." Dave jumped.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Checking up on my agent. He's finished his mission now, has he not Zara?"

"Yes, I believe so. Come on you lot, we need to talk." I was torn for a second, then followed Zara. I wasn't breaking cover just yet.

"Why on EARTH did you tell two civilians about CHERUB?!"she yelled. "It's one of MI5's top kept secrets! When we get back to camp-"  
"They're not civilians." I said, interrupting her mid-rant.

"What?"  
"They're not civilians. One's ASIS, the other's CIA. And you yelling about CHERUB isn't the best way to keep it a secret."

"You want me to believe that? Other intelligence agencies have child spies?"

"It's true. You can ask Joe Byrne and Ethan Brooke over there." She turned around to see that, yes, both of them were standing there talking to their respective spies.

"How do you know their names?" she asked suspiciously.

"I listen." I also lie.

"But they're over there, and you're over here." Kerry said.

"You didn't notice I wasn't here? I had just arrived when I corrected Zara."

"How did you know I said they were civilians then?" Zara asked.

"There were deaf people in China who heard you." I said whilst rolling my eyes. Zara glanced round, to see if anyone else was in hearing distance.

"The only other people that would hear you are the ones over there" I reassured her, and pointed towards Blunt, Byrne and (the ASIS guy) "and they probably already know about you." Blunt walked back over to us at this point.

"I'd like to speak with Alex for a moment." As I walked away, I heard Rat whisper to James.

"Was he a cherub?"

"No idea. Why?"  
"He's so _blunt_."

I followed Blunt into a group of trees. He turned to me.

"You don't need to go back to CHERUB." he stated.

"What if I disagree? You have nothing to blackmail me with anymore."  
"I could tell them you're part of SCORPIA."  
"And why would they believe you?"  
"You're too good. You can shoot without looking. I can always explain the concept of instinctive shooting to them."  
"So what if I encounter them on a mission?" I snapped "They blow my cover, but for the wrong reason? Do you really want that to happen?"

"I could tell them you're MI6."  
"At least we'd be on the same side then. I'd still rather go to MI5. At least they let me _learn_ there. It's a rather vital thing that I need to do to get my GCSE's. I also need to attend the exams. I can do that here. It's quite surprising what I've learnt. Did you know that MI5 have a Ben Daniels look-alike? He teaches terrorist groups. Gets a lot of information wrong, but that's beside the point. I. Don't. Want. To. Go. Back. To. MI6."

"Fine. I'll email McAfferty later."

"He won't get the email."  
"I'll ring him."  
"What's his number?"  
"I'll ring you."  
"I won't answer." Blunt sighed.

"I didn't want to have to do this." he said morosely, and signalled with his hand. I felt something pierce my chest. I looked down and saw a tranquilliser dart sticking out.

"Shit." I said, pulling it out of my chest. Then everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

I woke up in my room at CHERUB. I looked round, confused. This wasn't what I was expecting. I got up, and got dressed. I looked at the clock. 8:00am. Lesson time. I noticed a white envelope on my desk. Inside was a note with

_Alex._

_Come to my office when you wake up_

_Zara_

written on it. I opened my door, and to her office. I passed a few people who were rushing to lesson. I knocked on the door.

"Come in!" she said. I opened the door quickly, and then shut it behind me.

"Sit down." Zara said. I sat cautiously.

"I got a very interesting email from the head of MI6 this morning." I snapped my head up.

"What? Why?"

"Well, it told me how you shoved him out of the way of a tranquilliser dart, fought off an assassin that apparently had been missed by the police, and won, then catch the other dart meant for Blunt in your hand." What the hell was Blunt doing? Was it Blunt though? I mean, everyone knew Mrs Jones didn't like Blunt using me, so it could have been her... I was shocked out of my thoughts by something Zara said.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yes. You saved the head of MI6! Everyone agrees that you should get your black shirt!" Zara passed one over the table. "You can change now if you want. I won't look." I did. I couldn't wait to try and convince James that I'd always had one. Or I could tell him the truth, and see how long before he believes it. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

"Off you got to lesson. I believe you have martial arts now...?"  
"Yeah. Thanks." I rushed out of the room. The last thing I heard was Zara mutter 'he wakes up early, doesn't he?'

I told James the story Blunt, or whoever, emailed Zara at lunch. He didn't believe me. I told him I was actually part of MI6, and been on 9 missions, and Zara had just received my file, and decided I needed a black short. He didn't believe that either. So I made up a more extravagant story, involving a shoot-out between SCORPIA and MI6, and that's the one he believed. I just rolled my eyes.

* * *

6 months later, I was bored. I was laying on my bed, completely bored. I didn't like being shot at, but at least it was more interesting than school work. I had learnt every language they offered, and had started teaching in a few of them. I had even helped out in one of the basic trainings! I was relieved when I got a mission that claimed to be dangerous. I remembered that the last mission I went on was classified as dangerous as possible, yet it wasn't hard compared to any of my missions. Not even Stormbreaker, and that only lasted, what, 3 or 4 days? Not that long at all. In fact, none of my missions lasted more than a couple of months... I was broken out of my reverie by a knock at my door. I jumped up and opened it to see Corinne standing there.

"Hey." I said, smiling at her.

"Hey. Zara wants to see us. In the mission control room." Yes! A mission!

In the mission room, I found out about my next mission – break into the Royal and General Bank, as there possible links between it and SCORPIA. I almost laughed. Complete wrong end of the stick.

"Zara..." I said.

"Yes, Alex?"  
"This is my uncle's old bank.

"Oh. Do you still want to go?"  
"Yeah. I thought you'd ought to know though."  
"Why?"  
"People may recognise me. I visited him occasionally, and apparently we looked alike."

"Hmm." Zara said. "Hopefully they won't. Why would an ex-employee's nephew be breaking in anyway?"

* * *

A few hours later, we were in London, standing in front of the Royal and General. _It's been ages since I was last here_ I thought.

"What did you say?" Corinne asked? I said that out loud? Whoops.

"Just remarking on how long it's been since I saw this place."

"Yeah. Do you know a good way in?"

"Yep. Follow me." I walked straight through the glass doors of the bank. I had texted Smithers on the way to London, and apparently all I had to do was to ask for him.

"I'm here to meet Mr Smithers. I'm Alex Cub." Corinne had caught up and was giving me the strangest look.

"You can go up." the receptionist said, indicating a bank of elevators behind her. I walked calmly over to them. When we were in the elevator, Corinne stayed quiet.

"What, no questions?"

"I've decided you're mad. Completely and utterly off the scale. So your plan has to work, because it has no chance in hell."

"That's some logic."  
"That's how I work." The elevator doors opened, and we were met with 4 men in black with guns. What on earth was Smithers planning?

* * *

We were taken to Jones' office, who was sitting behind her desk, doing some paperwork. She looked up as we were brought in.  
"Ah. Hello Jacques. I wasn't expecting you to turn up."  
"I left my coat in my uncle's office."  
"Your uncle's dead. He has been for over two years."

"It was worth a shot."

"Who have you brought with you? She looks nice." Corinne was slightly disturbed by Jones' description of her.

"I'm Akita. It's nice to meet you."  
"Interesting name."  
"Not my fault. It was my grandmothers name." Corinne was really playing Jones, and from what I could see, she was believing it. Well, not the last sentence anyway.

"Well, it was nice knowing you." Jones signalled to one of the men who had captured us. He brought up his gun and shot me in the chest. I touched the spot. It didn't feel like when I was shot by the assassin. I could smell the blood and feel myself going unconscious. The last thing I saw was Ben burst through the door, and hit the guy who shot me in the face.

* * *

I woke up in front of Blunt's desk. I was still wearing the blood covered shirt.

"Ah." Blunt said. "You're up earlier than I expected."  
"Why does everyone say that? Also, you shot me."

"I'm afraid we had to."  
"You SHOT me."  
"I didn't. It was one of the door guards."

"YOU HAD ME SHOT."

"It doesn't matter. You're alive."  
"I bet that's not what CHERUB thinks."  
"That is correct."

"Sometimes, I wish I could go back to SCORPIA. At least they didn't blackmail me." I muttered under my breath. Blunt either didn't hear, or ignored me.

"You can have the next month off. I believe your GCSE's are starting soon?"

"I'll take your word for it."  
"We won't contact you until they're all over. Enjoy your time off." I just stared. I was going to get a chance to take my GCSE's? Thank god! Blunt coughed, getting my attention, and handed me a note. I took it, and left the room. I very nearly skipped out of the bank.


	10. 3 years later

3 years later...

I was standing in front of Jones' desk. She had become the new head of MI6 when Blunt had retired. I was an official spy for MI6 – joined straight out of school. I had passed my GCSE's. Straight A's, with A*'s in French, German, Spanish and PE. I had CHERUB to thank for my A's. According to the note, I had measles with complications, then taken a private tutor to get back up to standard. It went down quite well, especially as I had the knowledge to go with the lie.

"You'll share this mission with a couple of our new recruits." Jones said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I sighed internally. I just hoped they wouldn't mess it up. I had a 100% success rate to keep up. Jones pressed the button for her intercom.

"Send the agents in." The door opened. I turned to see Corinne and John standing there. There mouths dropped open. I turned to Jones.

"Was this deliberate?" I asked. Jones seemed genuinely confused.

"Was what deliberate?"  
"These two are from CHERUB. They were in my basic training group." Jones smiled at this.

"They didn't put that on their application! I'm sure you'll all get along then!" Corinne finally got some words out.

"You're dead." she said. "I saw you die."  
"I'm part of MI6's new division – ghosts. We can get anywhere and do anything. No need to worry about walls, or guns. Can't die either, as I'm already dead."

"Seriously?" John asked. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"I thought you had to be smart to get into CHERUB. No, I'm not dead. Many people wish I was, but unfortunately for them, I like living."

"Why aren't you dead? You bled so much..." Corinne said.

"Because it wasn't my blood. Also, I had no idea that was going to happen."

"It's nice to meet you and all, but we're supposed to meet MI6's top agent for a mission." John said. I just stood there and raised and eyebrow. "Do you know where he is?"

"Yes. I know exactly where he is."

"Where is he?" I pointed to my office. I hardly ever used it though.

"He should be in there." I said. Well, I should be. I just wasn't. John walked over to it knocked on the door and waited for something to happen. Corinne however didn't move, but stared at me.

"It's you, isn't it." she said quietly. I nodded.

"Is that why you were shot? MI6 wanted you, so captured you?" I snorted.

"God, no. I've been working for MI6 since I was 14." Corinne looked shocked at that.

"You mean... when you were in CHERUB... That story you told James when you got your black shirt..."

"Yeah... I'd been working for them for over a year. Who'd suspect a child spy was spying on you?" I said with a laugh.

"MI6 knows about about CHERUB?" Corinne seemed concerned at that.

"Well... so does the CIA. And ASIS."

"And who's fault is that?" I laughed.

"You want to go put John out of his misery?"

"Sure." We walked over.

"They're not there." he said. I opened the door, and walked in.

"They are!" I heard Corinne snort. I quickly sat in the chair. Josh walked in.

"They won't like you sitting in their chair." he said.

"Seriously? Are you still not getting it?" Corinne said. "We were told we'd meet the agent in Jones' office. Alex said this was their office." Josh raised an eyebrow.

"You mean..." I took a mock bow in the chair.

"MI6's top agent at your service."

"You're no older than us! How can you be the top agent already?"  
"Classified."

"What? CHERUB is classified. You starting MI6 cannot be classified."  
"You wanna bet?"

"Sure." I turned the laptop on my desk towards him. He took it, logged in, and tried to access my file.

"It won't even tell me your whole name or what level pass I need! It calls you Agent Rider. Why is that?" he said. I smiled.

"Classified. Now pay up."  
"What?"  
"You bet. Pay up."

"We didn't agree on a price!"  
"Whatever you've got on you will be fine." John just looked at me. I held out my hand. He looked at it.

"Don't make me come and get my money."  
"I've been at CHERUB these past years."  
"I beat the teacher in half a minute _before_ basic training. And I've been on missions since 'leaving' CHERUB."

"Is that why you 'left' then? MI6 wanted you"

"No. I left because they wanted me back."  
"Back? What? How long have you been working for MI6?"  
"Classified. And why on earth are you carrying so much money around with you?" John looked at my hands, where I held a wallet of his.

"That's not the wallet people are supposed to steal." he groaned.

"Then don't make it so obvious that you have it. Your hand went towards it when I mentioned getting the money." I added, when he shot me a look. I threw back the wallet.

"You didn't take anything." I smiled and handed him a mission folder.

"I think you're forgetting why we're in here." I had taken his watch, phone, other wallet and MI6 badge too.


	11. Author's Note

Well, that really wasn't expected! Less than 15 hours, and I have a review (though my inbox says I have two...), 3 favourites and four followers (insert stalker joke of your choice here.) I meant to put this authors note at the start of the story, but I lost (read:forgot about) it. So here's the basics:

I've read too much fanfiction to distinguish the line between canon and fanon, so sorry if anything doesn't make sense, and ask me if you want it explained.

The joke about him waking up early is the fact that he's gotten used to being drugged/knocked unconscious so it isn't as effective on him. Or he had a drug resistance course at SCORPIA.

Please message me if you notice any mistakes (grammar, spelling, 1st/3rd person random swaps etc.)

I don't own Alex Rider or CHERUB. I was 3 when the 1st rider came out, and 7 for the first cherub. Unless I'm some sort of amazing child prodigy, I didn't write these two books.

This is rated T because when I get tired (or really annoyed) I swear, and my best inspiration comes at around 11.30pm.

Also, if you see anything that sounds like a note to myself, tell me about it, and (if you can) tell me what to put in place of it.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy my story.

Update: my brother has just told me to become an author.


	12. Bonus!

Hello people! This is a crack version of the part in '3 years later' where John finds out about Alex... I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

John walked into the office to see someone with thickly framed glasses and a terrible black wig sitting behind the desk. He heard Corinne stifle a laugh behind him. The agent glanced up at the noise.  
"Ah! You must be Corinne and John! It's nice to meet you. Say, have you seen a blonde man, about your age, anywhere? I need him to run an errand for me..." John couldn't take his eyes off the wig. The agent rolled his eyes. "Got all my hair burnt off in my last mission." John had a faint look of horror on his face. "Spying's less fun than it seems sometimes. It'll grow back sooner or later. Anyway, down to busin-" The agent was interrupted by a head appearing round the door.  
"Hey, Alex, you..." the person trailed off. "Hey, weren't you part of that CHERUB group? I don't know if you'd remember me. I'm Ben." He sighed. "Alex, please take the wig off, it's really distracting. Where did you find it anyway?" The agent looked rather peeved.  
"Agent Daniels, why on earth are you mistaking me for that young rapscallion. And another thing..." Ben walked over, and pulled the wig and glasses off. Alex smiled at Ben.  
"It was worth a shot. And it was working so well too..."


End file.
